Cliff diving
by Crystal of Moonlight
Summary: Ryou died and Bakura is depressed. But there is a certain Egyptian who can possibly help him to get over his grief. Ch.18: What will Malik's father do now that he knows everything? Uh-oh... - Thiefshipping, Shonen-ai, Happy end COMPLETE R
1. Chapter 1

**Well... Hopefully, you'll like this story. It's shonen ai and if you don't like it, then don't read it. **

**Btw, this will be a Thiefshipping story, even if it doesn't look like it at the beginning.**

**Enjoy! ^-^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 1**

I sat in my room. Outside it was dark. Full moon... again. It remembered me of the day he left. Without any prior warning. Without any goodbye.

I'd thought I would never lose him. He promised to stay with me forever. One second, I see his white hair shimmering in the moonlight, waving in the wind, and then...

_*flashback*_

"_Hey, Kura, I'm back", he said as soon as he was in our apartment._

_I've waited impatiently for him to come back from the store. Every time when he wasn't at home, I didn't know what I should do. Today, I had started with watching TV, but without him, watching TV was boring. Then, I'd begun to read a book, but reading was something I usually only did in school, and books were more boring than watching TV without him. As there had been nothing else I could do, I'd positioned myself on the couch and looked constantly on the clock. After 328 seconds I'd yawned the first time and then I had repeated this every 180 seconds. At my ninth yawning (I was already 1768 seconds laying on the couch), I thought I'd go insane. When would he finally come home?_

_And that was the point when he came back. _

_I stood up and went to him. "I'm glad you're finally back", I said and gave him a kiss, that made him blush. I loved it when he blushed. His normally pale cheeks then had a beautiful red color that made him irresistible. I snickered and hugged and squeezed him. "I missed you, Ry", I whispered into his ear._

_Ryou sighed. "I was just gone somewhat over half an hour..."_

"_Yes, but no matter how long you are not with me, the fact that you ARE not with me makes me missing you", I explained and kissed him again. Carefully, I pushed my tongue into his mouth, taking him by surprise, as always when I did this. He dropped the shopping bags. The surprised look in his eyes made me slightly smirk while I was discovering his mouth. Ryou always had this sweet taste. Sweet and delicious. Like... There was nothing similar. It was indescribably. _

_As I had to break the kiss for getting air, I led him to the couch. Ryou smiled dazed. I grinned and kissed him again, passionately. Slowly, I started to take him his jeans off, but he then hold on to my arm and broke free from our kiss. _

"_Please, don't...", he whispered softly and continued with kissing. I sighed inwardly, broke the kiss and stood up. He looked at his feet._

"_I'm sorry, Bakura, but...", he said and looked apologizing at me with his big chocolate brown eyes. _

"_Never mind", I said and walked away, into my room. I'd thought that today would finally be the day..._

_I lay down on my bed and started to think. Why didn't he want it, too? I couldn't understand him. Every time I tried, he said the same. 'Please, don't...' I didn't know why we should not do it. We were together for a long time. He loved me and I loved him. _

"_Argh... Maybe he doesn't love me enough...", I muttered to myself._

"_That's not true." Suddenly, Ryou appeared at the door. _

_I closed my eyes. "Well, then tell me why you don't wanna do it", I said._

_I heard him coming closer to my bed. As he stood beside me, he sat down on the bed. I opened my eyes. He didn't look in my direction. He just stared at the wall._

"_I just... don't want to jump the gun on the whole thing", he explained. _

_I scoffed. "Yes, sure. Because three years are such a short time..."_

_Ryou closed his eyes. I sat up._

"_Bakura...", he began, "If you'd really love me, you'd understand..."_

"_So, this is a love-test?", I asked._

"_No, of course not", he answered quickly and looked in my face._

"_Then what?", I questioned._

_Ryou shrugged. "I'm just not ready...", he muttered. _

"_Really? Or is it because you don't think that you'll love me forever?"_

_His eyes widened. "No!", Ryou answered. "I'll love you forever. I can't imagine anyone else at my side. But... Will you love me forever?"_

_Now my eyes widened. "Of course! You're the only one for me! How could you even think that I won't love you forever?"_

_Ryou just smiled. A moment of silence followed._

"_But...", I began, "Now, that we both know that we'll love each other forever..." I opened the first button of his shirt._

"_Bakura", he muttered. _

"_What?", I whispered. "Ryou..."_

"_Bakura...", he said again, "Not now. Not today. Maybe... I don't know when, but I want to be sure of it."_

_Inwardly, I rolled my eyes. He did like it was such a big deal... Well, okay... It was a big deal, but why did he delay it? I gave up, but only for today._

"_Okay...", I said, "Then I'll wait until you are sure of it. But I just want to tell you something."_

_He looked at me, expectantly._

"_We're meant to be together", I told him. "Don't ever forget that."_

_Ryou smiled and hugged me. Then, he went out of my room. I sighed and slumped backwards on my pillow. _

"_Oh, Ryou...", I muttered. "Of course I'll wait for you until you're ready, but it's just so hard to resist you..."_

_I lay on my bed for a while and just thought. _

_Suddenly, it knocked at my door. Ryou peeked through the door crack and smiled. _

"_Come in, Ry", I said and he stepped into my room._

"_Well... I've thought and..." Now I was nosey. Maybe he'd changed his mind... "Do you remember the wish you had two years ago?"_

_I was confused. What did he mean? Well, I HAVE had THAT wish already two years ago, but..._

"_It was Valentine's day two years ago... and you told me about one wish you had. It was something you'd wanted to do and you'd said that it would show that we'd go through rough and smooth, through foul and fair, through ups and downs..."_

_Now I'd get it. _

"_You talk about the cliff diving thing I wanted us to do?", I asked._

"_Exactly", he said._

"_Well, what about it?"_

_He grinned. "I thought it maybe could throw a sop to you. You know, two years ago, I thought it was stupid and I really was not ready to do that. Now, I'm not ready for having sex with you. But now I'm ready for doing the cliff diving thing..."_

_My heart jumped. I sat up. "You mean, you wanna do this with me?!", I said. Ryou nodded._

_Two years ago, I'd absolutely wanted to do cliff diving together with Ryou, but Ryou didn't agree to it. He'd thought that it was dumb and dangerous and had nothing to do with our relationship and love. But I thought, that it WOULD reflect our relationship and love. We went through ups and downs together and the whole cliff diving thing... well, you jump down from this cliff and land in the ocean, in unknown waters. When you're standing on the cliff, you have to make the decision how you go on. Will you jump or not? In life, you have to make decisions, too, and sometimes you have to jump in unknown waters. So, the cliff diving thing reflects both life and our love. _

_Then, I remembered how frightened Ryou had been of the idea as I told him two years ago._

"_Ryou...", I began, "You know you don't have to do this, right? You don't have to throw a sop to me because of the sex thing... I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do."_

"_I know that. But I perceive now, that you'd been right about the cliff diving thing, that it reflects our love and so on. And I thought it would make you happy and everything I want is making you happy."_

_It had been my longstanding wish to do cliff diving together with him. It was something extreme. _

"_Ryou, are you sure?", I asked him._

"_Of course, I am", he answered. "If you don't want to do it anymore, then we don't have to do it, but I thought, it would make you happy. I know it's a longstanding wish of yours. So... Do you wanna go?"_

"_Where?", I asked._

"_Cliff diving", Ryou answered._

"_What? Now?"_

"_Of course."_

"_But it's dark outside. It's already late...", I told him._

"_Yes, but... isn't that more fun?"_

"_Well..." I was so near to getting one longstanding wish. "Okay, but only if you really wanna do this."_

"_I do", he said and gave me an adorable smile. "C'mon", he took my hand and pulled me up from the bed. I grinned. He grinned. We both grinned. _

_The cliffs were not far away from our apartment, so we walked. Also it was dark outside, it was a warm night. A warm Saturday summer night. Sounds like a stage play, doesn't it?_

_Ryou and I arrived at the cliffs. How often had we watched some crazy people jumping? Hundred times? Thousand times? I didn't know... But now, Ryou and I were the crazy people that wanted to jump. _

_We stripped down to our waists and hid our clothes in a bush. I admired Ryou's beautiful pale body, that was shimmering in the light of the full moon. The moonlight also made his white hair gleam. He looked like an angel. Only without wings..._

_Ryou grinned and took my hand. Then, we walked onto the highest cliff. A breeze made our hair waving in the wind. As I looked down into the deep darkness of the black ocean, I felt how adrenaline rushed through my body. It was a great feeling. _

_I looked into Ryou's face. He smiled, but I saw a hint of fear in his eyes. _

"_Ryou, are you sure you wanna jump?", I asked and hoped that he was sure._

"_Yes", he assured me._

_I squeezed his hand lightly and kissed him._

"_Are you ready?", I whispered. He nodded heavily. _

"_Yes", he breathed._

"_I love you, Ry", I told him._

"_I love you, too", he answered._

"_So, I count to three, and then we jump, 'kay?", I said._

_Ryou nodded._

"_One...", I counted and looked him in his face. His face was unreadable, but he smiled._

"_Two...", I continued to count. Ryou chewed on his lower lip. We both took a deep breath._

"_THREE!", I screamed. We both ran to the edge of the cliff and as we reached it, we jumped, hand in hand. _

_The feeling while we were falling was incredible. We fell so fast, but at the same time it felt like we were falling in slow motion. I didn't lose my hold of Ryou's hand. The dark water came nearer and nearer. And nearer. And then, I felt how my feet broke through the water surface. I felt how water embraced my legs and all of a sudden, I was completely underwater. The water swirled around us and it whirled us around. Suddenly I lost hold of Ryou's hand. I didn't know where he was, where the water surface was, it was too dark underwater to see anything. I struggled and tried to get to the surface, but that was easier said than done when you don't know where the surface is and the water whirls you around. I felt how I had the urge to take breathe, but I was still underwater. I hadn't expected that the water current would be this heavy. From the top of the cliff, I hadn't seen that... I continued to struggle and then, suddenly, I broke the water surface. As soon as my head was out of the dark ocean, I took a deep breath and searched for Ryou. _

_But I didn't see him. Where was he? My heart beat nervous against my chest. Was Ryou still underwater? I looked down into the deepness. I couldn't see anything... But stop! I thought I'd seen something white! As fast as I could, I dived into the darkness and tried to find Ryou. _

_I found him. He hovered in the water, his hair pointed in every direction and his eyes were shut. //Oh, no!//, I thought. //Please don't let it be too late!//_

_Quickly, I grabbed his arm and pulled him up to the surface. He was unconscious. He didn't move. What should I do? _

_I pulled him to the waterside and positioned him, so that he lay on his back. I tried to feel his pulse, but to my horror, I couldn't find one. _

"_No, no, no...", I muttered. "C'mon, Ryou... Breathe!"_

_I did everything I knew of first aid, but Ryou did neither begin to breathe nor did he show any sign of life. He just lay there... _

_The moonlight shined on his pale body, his pale angelic face, his white shimmering hair... His lips were blue..._

_My whole body trembled. Suddenly, I had a strange feeling. It was like my heart was ripped apart at the sight of Ryou, laying motionless on the waterside... My heart and my head started a fight. My head said it was too late. He was... I couldn't even think that. My heart tried to put the parts of itself together again, and said that he was just unconscious, that in one minute, he would jump up and tell me how much fun this had been. _

_But he didn't jump up. My head was right, not my heart. Ryou didn't move, he didn't breathe, he... didn't do anything. His blue lips were slightly opened as if they wanted to say 'Kiss me, Kura'. So I bent forward and pressed my lips against the blue, cold lips of my lover. It was a long kiss, or so I thought. A short time, the thought that he maybe would wake up from the kiss, like in a fairytale, crossed my mind. But, of course, life wasn't a fairytale._

_I broke away from the motionless figure of Ryou. This was not fair! Ryou couldn't be dead. No way! He'd promised to love me forever, to never leave my side and now... _

"_Ryou, please...", I whispered and tears flowed down my face, "Please, don't let me alone... I need you, Ry. You can't just go, without goodbye... Please Ryou."_

_But no matter how often I whispered these words to him, he didn't wake up. He just lay there. Just lay... The full moon shined on his angelic, peaceful looking face. Ryou was so beautiful._

_Again, I tried to feel his pulse. Again, there wasn't one. I tried to find a heart beat, but there wasn't any. _

_Then, I crawled backwards, away from Ryou. My eyes burned from crying._

_Sobbing and crying, I sat two meters away from Ryou and just watched him do nothing. It was a awful sight, to see my lover laying there. My lover... my Ryou... He couldn't be dead... I loved him and he had said, he loved me, too. He couldn't just leave me... No, no, no, no, no... This was a nightmare. Was life like that? Unfair? Was it supposed to be like that, or am I the only person that had to live such a life. Why was my lover taken away from me? Why? Oh, Ryou, why?_

"_Why?!", I screamed into the darkness of the night. Of course, I didn't get an answer. _

_But what should I do now? I went back to Ryou's dead figure. Should I bury him? I didn't think, Ryou'd like that. He had been somebody who liked to be free. _

_I decided to position him in the ocean, so that the waves could bring him anywhere. So that Ryou could be free..._

_I sat at the waterside and watched my lover disappearing between waves. And then, a thought crossed my mind._

"_I've killed him...", I muttered. "Everything is my fault..."_

_He suggested to go cliff diving, to make me happy, because he didn't want to do what I wanted to do. I am so egoistical! Only because of me, he was dead now. Dead... Because of me... We wouldn't have gone cliff diving, if I hadn't been so frustrated. If I hadn't been in the condition that made him think, that he had to make me happy. Ryou was dead... gone... forever..._

_As his body was far, far away of the waterside, I stood up and walked home. _

_I didn't really remember how I get home, but finally, I was home. I couldn't believe it... Ryou couldn't be dead..._

_I went into my room and started crying again. I slumped on my bed and buried my head in my pillow. _

"_Ryou, Ryou...", I muttered until I fell asleep. And the light of the full moon shined on me through the window..._

And now I sat here, in my room. One month was gone by. The Monday after Ryou's death, I had gone to school as if everything was normal. As Yugi and the others had asked me where Ryou was, I answered that he'd left me, because he didn't love me anymore. They couldn't believe it, but finally, they did. I thought, it was better to think that Ryou had left me than to think that he was dead. I liked to think that, and everybody else should think that as well.

I was glad, that nobody had found Ryou's body yet. And hopefully, nobody would find it, because then, I'd have to explain and it would reopen the wounds...

I sighed and lay down on my bed. As every night, I buried my head in the pillow and started to cry, like in the night Ryou had died.

And the light of the full moon shined on me through the window...

**Poor Bakura, poor Ryou...**

**This was sad, wasn't it? If you want to know how the story continues, then you'll have to wait for the next chapter. **

**But one thing I can reveal: Malik is going to show up in the next chapter. **

**Please review! I want to know, if you like this story or not. And if there are grammar mistakes, then tell me.**

**So, don't forget to review!!!**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Now, this is the second chapter of 'Cliff diving'. I promise, it won't be as sad as the first one.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 2 **

I woke up as the sunlight shined through my window. I felt miserable, really miserable, but by now I got used to this feeling. It was a feeling of loneliness and grief. Without Ryou, everything was so different. Everything was boring and bad and colorless, as if he would have taken everything that was beautiful and funny and colored with him... I missed him...

I stood up and wiped over my burning eyes. I walked to the mirror to look at my reflection. I looked... like I felt. And my eyes were red from crying the whole night and too little sleep. But I didn't care how I looked. Appearance was so unimportant. The only thing I cared about was Ryou. Why did he had to go?

I sighed. Would I ever come over him? He was kinda my second half, my lighter half. We've been soul-mates...

I sighed again and had a wash before I went to school. Going to school was better than not knowing what to do the whole weekend. Thankfully, today was school. It was Monday.

And it was every day the same. I walked to school, where Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan and Duke waited for me and then I was bored for about eight hours. At lunch time, I sat with Yugi and the others. At first after Ryou had 'left' me, they tried to cheer me up and they said, that everything was not so bad, but I didn't react to their attempts, because I knew that it WAS bad. By now, they'd given up trying to cheer me up, because they've realized that worthless. And worst was, as they said, that Ryou was stupid if he'd left me. That made me cry, because now, they had a bad image of Ryou, since they didn't know the truth. Everything I did was wrong.

I sighed as I arrived at school. Why was life so unfair and complicated?

Yugi, Tea, Tristan and Duke were already waiting for me. Joey wasn't here yet. Certainly Seto, the CEO of Kaiba Corporation, would drive him to school in his limousine. And if you ask yourself why, then I'll tell you the reason. Seto and Joey were together, but they had a strange relationship. They loved each other, but most of the time they dealt with each other as if they were worst enemies. By now, everyone was used to it.

While we're on relationships, I can also tell you, the others as well. Yugi and Tea were a couple as well as Tristan and Duke.

But now back to my miserable life.

I arrived at the group that was waiting for me. They said welcome to me and smiled. It were sad smiles, pitying smiles. I forced myself to smile back, but instead of a smile, a grimace flashed over my face.

"Hey, Bakura", Yugi said cheerfully, "How was your weekend?"

//What do you think?//, I thought. Sometimes I hated the always cheerful tri-color haired boy. I hated him especially when he asked questions like this one. And I hated him for being happy 24/7. I hated him for trying to be friends with everyone and for being very, very, very naive. He always thought the best of somebody. It was like the world he lived in was a paradise and there were unicorns and fairies and gingerbread houses everywhere. Oh, and don't forget the always fine weather without thunderstorms and rain. The only reason I still were with Yugi and the others was, because Ryou had been best friends with them, and he wanted me to be it, too.

"Great...", I muttered and looked away, but I saw how the others exchanged sad glances.

At this moment, a black limousine stopped and Joey stepped out.

"You're late, Joey", Tristan observed as the blonde arrived.

"Yeah, sorry. Seto and I had to get something done before he could drive me to school", Joey explained.

"What ever could that have been?", Duke asked teasingly.

"Not what you think", Joey told him.

"Sure", Tristan said smirking.

"Stop making dirty thoughts!", Joey exclaimed. The others laughed. I didn't. I only watched them.

We walked into the school building to our lockers.

"Hey, do you actually know about that new guy that will come here today? He's new in town", Joey said.

"A new student?", Yugi said excitedly.

"Where is he from?", Tea asked.

"Uh... Egypt, I think", Joey answered.

"How do you know about that?", Tristan asked.

"I heard some students talking about him", Joey replied.

Their conversation continued, but I didn't listen anymore. It didn't interest me. I didn't care about who that new guy was and where he was from. That was so petty.

So I walked to the first class, History, and sat down on my usual seat. The seat next to me was empty. As Ryou had still been alive, that seat had been his. We'd had almost every class together. It had been a great time.

I sighed. I thought about Ryou again. Again! When would I stop doing this? Never... But it hurt to think about him. But how could I not think about his angelic face, his pale skin and his white hair?

"_I love you, too"_ had been his last words. I remembered them still. I remembered how he had said and stressed every single word. And every time I remembered them, it was like another part was ripped off my heart. Likely, there was not much left of my heart anymore, as often as I remembered his words...

The teacher was late. The bell had already rung five minutes ago and she wasn't here yet. I sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Finally, the teacher arrived, but not alone. At her side was a bronzed guy with sand-colored hair and lavender eyes. He looked a little odd. Around his arms and his neck he wore golden rings and at his ears he had golden earrings. One could mistake him for a girl.

The teacher presented him to the class.

"Class, this is Malik Ishtar. He is from Egypt and he joins you in this class. Be kind", she told us. So, this was the new guy Joey had told about.

Then, the teacher gestured him to the only empty seat in the classroom. The seat next to me. Ryou's former seat. How could she dare to allow anybody to take his seat? I clenched my fist under the table, angry about the teacher and this stupid guy. I hated him already, because he sat down on my precious Ryou's seat.

After he'd sat down he looked at me curiously, I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I stared at my table and hoped that he would disappear. But he didn't.

He looked at me as if he would thought about whether he should address me or not. He opened his mouth to say something and I gave him a scowl. Quickly, he shut his mouth again and looked away from me. That was good, because I was definitely not in the mood to talk with anybody. Ryou had been the only person I could really talk with. He understood me and my nature and my jokes and... everything.

I looked to the Egyptian next to me. He looked surreptitiously at me, out of the corner of his eye.

//Hmm... I wonder if I've scared him//, I thought. But I came to the conclusion that I didn't care. I didn't care about what other people thought about me. Should he think of me what he wanted, I didn't care.

There was only one person I cared about. But this person wasn't even alive... Damn! I thought of him again. Argh... Why is forgetting so frigging difficult?!

I sighed and buried my face in my hands. I had to forget him, to get over him. He was gone. I had to leave the past in the past and find the future... but how? I didn't really wanna forget Ryou, that was my problem. I didn't want to let go, to forget.

When I closed my eyes, I saw the surprised expression on his face whenever I'd pushed my tongue into his mouth. I saw his chocolate brown eyes and his light pink lips, his pale skin and his pale cheeks that turned a beautiful red whenever he'd blushed. And I saw the nervous look he'd had in his eyes whenever I tried to take him his jeans off.

Suddenly, somebody tapped lightly on my shoulder and brought me out of my daydream. I blinked, slightly confused and saw the new student, Malik, standing in front of me, waving with his hands before my eyes. A concerned expression was on his face.

"Are you... alright?", he asked hesitantly.

My eyes narrowed. "Of course", I snapped at him.

He raised his hands in an innocent gesture.

"Hey, I just wanted to tell you that this class is over. You looked like you hadn't noticed that...", he said.

"Hmpf", I muttered and stood up. It was true, I really hadn't noticed that this class was over, but I didn't want to show him that I would need his help. No, I didn't need his help. Even if I'd need his help, I would never admit it.

Malik reached out his hand. I only looked at it and then at his face.

"I'm Malik", he smiled. I shrugged.

"I don't care", I told him and walked out of the classroom. I knew that this was the complete opposite of polite and kind and stuff, but I didn't care. He was new and this had been his first class. He would meet more than enough other people he could be friends with. But I didn't need friends. There was only one person I needed...

I walked to my next class. Chemistry. I'd never had this class together with Ryou, so it wasn't as bad as History had been. But I couldn't concentrate on what the teacher said, I started to daydream of Ryou again. His face, his eyes... everything of him I could see in front of me. Every detail.

The school bell jolted me out of my daydream. I walked to the next class and continued with daydreaming. Somehow, it was comforting. It felt like Ryou wasn't really gone, because I saw him so clear and remembered everything of him. And I knew he wasn't really gone. A part of him was in my heart.

And then it was lunch time. I walked through the crowd of students to the cafeteria and went to the table, where Yugi, Tea, Tristan, Duke, Joey and me (and in former times Ryou) sat since we know each other.

So, I sat there and poked in my food (I really didn't know what exactly it was) and waited for the others to arrive. First Joey, than Tea, then Duke and Tristan. Only after several minutes, Yugi arrived as well, but he was, to my horror, not alone.

//Oh, no//, I thought, //Why he of all people?//

Standing besides Yugi was Malik, the one everyone was talking about since it was such a sensation when a new student arrived at school. The one, that had tried to become my friend. The one, that sat on Ryou's place in History class.

I sighed inwardly. Why did Yugi consider it his duty, to be friends with everyone who hasn't a friend?

"Hey guys!", Yugi said cheerfully, "This is Malik. He's new in town and doesn't know anyone. I told him he could sit with us. Is that okay?"

Everyone nodded and welcomed Malik, but I didn't.

"Great", I mumbled and frowned.

Yugi presented us to Malik.

"These are Joey, Tristan, Duke, Tea and Bakura." Yugi continued to say something and I felt how Malik's eyes rested on me for a moment. I looked at him and tried to read his expression. It was curious, but also a bit angry and not-understanding. Our eye-contact only lasted for about a second. I had a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn't know what it was.

They started a conversation, but I merely listened. Not that it was interesting, I just had nothing better to do. I missed Ryou at lunch time more than at any other time while I was in school. Lunch time with Ryou had never been boring. It had always been the perfect time to make out with him. I'd always overwhelmed him somehow, and he'd blushed because of the looks we were getting from the other students. I'd loved it when everybody had been staring at us, some embarrassed, some giggling. And Ryou's blush had been so cute...

But that was over. Ryou wasn't here anymore and I was the only one who knew what had really happened to him. I didn't know where he was, but certainly he was floating in the ocean. Free, like a bird... or a fish in that case.

I was lost in thoughts, but as I heard somebody mentioning my name, it brought me out of my thoughts and I listened curiously. They thought I couldn't hear them, but they were wrong.

"Is Bakura always like that?", Malik whispered.

"Well...", Yugi began and exchanged glances with the others. "Bakura... he..."

"His boyfriend has left him about a month ago and since then, he is kinda quiet and unhappy and stuff. He just wants to be alone and he's always lost in thoughts", Joey explained.

I stared at the table as they all looked at me and I did, as if I didn't notice them staring.

"You mean... he's gay?", Malik asked surprised.

"Does it bother you?", Duke snapped at him. I smiled inwardly. Not because Duke was sort of defending me, no, because this was funny somehow. Malik didn't know that everyone at this table, besides Yugi and Tea, was gay.

"No, no, no", Malik said quickly. "I just didn't expect that and I simply wanted to know..."

"Well, yes, he's gay", Joey answered.

"Yeah, and we all are as well. Okay, besides Yugi and Tea", Tristan said. Malik nodded.

"That's no problem for me, as long as it isn't one for you that I'm straight", he said.

The conversation was no longer about me, and I didn't listen anymore. As lunch time was over, I went to my next class.

Finally, school was over and I walked home. Yugi, Tea, Tristan and Duke had almost the same way as I had and so they walked with me. It didn't bother me, I just didn't care. Joey was fetched from school by Seto, as usually.

While we walked, Yugi and the others talked. About Malik.

"Don't you think he's pretty handsome?", Tristan asked.

"Hey!", Duke protested.

"Of course not as handsome as you", Tristan corrected.

Tea and Yugi laughed.

"Well, I think he is a nice guy. We should take him to the cinema some time", Tea said.

As soon as I saw my apartment building, I said goodbye to them and went straight to the front door of the building and then up the stairs to my apartment.

I opened the door, took off my shoes and slumped on my bed. There I began to think...

**Well, this was chapter 2. Hope you liked it.**

**Please review. Just tell me if you liked this or not, 'kay?**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	3. Chapter 3

**So, here is chapter three. Thanks for the reviews. I always love getting reviews. And I'd love to get more...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I would, I wouldn't write fanfics, now would I?**

**Chapter 3**

And I thought.

Life went on. Life was rugged. Life was short. Life was unfair. Life sucked...

Somehow, my life wasn't beautiful or wonderful or whatever, it just wasn't. At least not anymore. Not since the only person I loved on earth was taken away from me. Why did he'd had to die? Everything was my fault. Maybe I could've saved him from drowning... If I only would have known what would happen... Then I'd never have agreed to jump from the cliff. Never. And only because he wanted me to be happy. Me. It was just so unfair. I should have been dead, not he. He just wanted to make me happy. He always had been nice and friendly and gentle and... so much more. And all that even before he'd met me. His whole life he'd never done anything wrong, anything bad. And he'd had it hard, very hard in his short life. His mother and sister had died in a car accident as he'd been eight and his father... He had killed himself four years after the death of his wife and daughter as he obviously didn't care about what would happen to Ryou when he was gone. Yes, Ryou'd had a hard and unhappy and sad childhood. He'd rarely smiled, his friends had told me.

And then, he'd met me. I knew it as if it had been yesterday. I was looking around in a shop for clothes, after I'd stolen the purse of a really unfriendly man.

Yes, I'd been a thief. All of my life I'd been a thief. And while we're at it, I could tell you as well from my life.

I didn't know where I was born and I didn't know my parents. I just knew that they hadn't wanted me and that they had marooned me just after my birth. So, after somebody had found me, I was brought into an orphanage. I hadn't liked it there. It had been dirty and there had been too much children. Mean children, as well. Even as I had been a small child and some of them had been ten years older than me, they'd been unfair and had pushed me around and had tormented me mercilessly because of my looks. And nobody had cared about me. Nobody had ever loved me. Neither my own parents, my own flesh and blood, nor the women that had worked at the orphanage. That had been hard. No wonder why I was how I was. But since no one had ever loved me, I had been used to it. But that didn't mean that I hadn't hated it.

Nobody would ever had adopted me. The men and women, that came to choose a child to adopt, had never been interested in me, and they always chose another child. I didn't know why nobody wanted me, maybe they just hadn't liked me. Maybe, there was something about me, for example my white hair or my dark eyes, that had scared them away.

As I'd turned ten (of course, I didn't know my exact birth day, the birth day they'd given me was just the day they'd found me), I had decided that I'd been old enough to leave the orphanage. So, in the night of my 'birth day', I'd climbed out of the window and had run away.

The following years I'd battled myself through the world. Well, not through the world, but through the town. At daylight, I'd always tried to steal as much money as possible to buy some food and other things I'd needed, and in the evening I'd looked for a place where I could stay overnight. Of course, this hadn't meant a warm bedroom or such things, no, it had meant to sleep under bridges and other places where you'd never wanted to live.

So, now back to the day when I'd met Ryou. As I'd already said, I was looking around in a shop, searching for clothes, after I'd stolen the purse from a really unfriendly man...

_*flashback*_

_I ran against somebody. _

"_Watch where you're going, naughty urchin!" I'd run against a man, who wore a expensive black suit._

"_I'm really sorry, Sir", I apologized and continued walking. As I was past him, I smirked. //What a dumbass...//, I thought and eyed the black leather purse I hold in my hands. I'd stolen it from the man in suit. Quickly, before he noticed that his purse was missing, I turned around the next corner and counted the money that was in the purse. Bingo! Forty thousand bucks! //Finally I can buy some new clothes//, I thought. Clothes were actually not as easy to steal as one might think, so I preferred to buy them. _

_I went to one of the clothes shops on the outskirts of Domino City. Of course, I couldn't spend all the money in this single shop. It would've been very suspicious if a thirteen year old boy would spend so much money in that single shop... _

_Well, I looked around to find anything that appealed to me. I'd finally found some shirts and trousers, so I went to a fitting cabin. I drew the curtain, that surrounded the fitting cabin, aside and two widened chocolate brown eyes stared at me in shock. My mouth opened slightly and I gaped at the most beautiful figure I've ever seen in my life. The boy, who stood in front of me, holding the shirt he wanted to try on before his chest, was stunningly beautiful. His skin was pale and he had long white hair, just like mine, only that mine was spikier than his. His lips were a soft pink and they looked so smooth. While I was looking at him I had a strange feeling, I'd never had before. I couldn't describe it._

_Only after a second of gaze, I realized that I was disturbing him and went out of the fitting cabin, mumbling an apologize. I almost had forgotten what I'd wanted to do in the first place. _

_//Who was that boy?//, I asked myself. I didn't know why, but somehow I had the feeling that I had to see him again. I would wait for him in front of the shop. Yes! _

_I looked at the clothes in my arms and decided to buy them without trying them on. If I'd try them on, the boy would probably have left the shop and I'd never see him again. _

_After I'd paid at the cash desk, I put the new clothes in my backpack and waited in front of the shop, leaning against the wall. _

_And while I waited, I asked myself what exactly I was doing. I... waited for some guy I'd seen a brief moment in a fitting cabin, because I thought he was beautiful...? Uh-oh, what was wrong with me? But maybe, I didn't wait for him because of his looks and stuff, maybe it was just the feeling that he could be... my friend that made me waiting for him. Maybe my instincts told me that he was a nice guy and I'd never had a friend, so it was about time. Or maybe... - it was hard to admit it- maybe I had a crush on him. A little crush..._

_At this moment the white-haired boy exited the shop and his eyes widened as he saw me. I noticed that his cheeks blushed a little and again I had this strange feeling in my stomach. I just looked at him. He turned and at a brisk pace he walked in the opposite direction. _

_Quickly, I followed him. My heart pounded heavily against my chest. Suddenly, as I nearly had caught up with him, he stopped and turned around to face me._

"_What do you want?", he asked and his voice was the most wonderful sound I'd ever heard. "Why do you follow me?", he demanded._

_I didn't know what to say. I'd never had such feelings for anybody... and I'd just met him, not half an hour ago, for the first time._

"_I... I...", I stuttered and decided to apologize for the fitting cabin thing. Yeah, that was a good idea to make some plus points."I'm sorry that I'd disturbed you in the shop. Really...", I told him._

"_Uhm... It's Ok. I was just... surprised", he said and put on a kind smile. I nodded and also put on my nicest smile. _

"_I'm Bakura", I told him and reached out my hand. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. Hopefully, he would shake my hand with his beautiful pale hand._

"_My name is Ryou", he said and shook my hand. As his hand touched mine, this strange feeling overwhelmed me again. Suddenly, I felt complete. I knew it was strange, but that's how it felt._

_I felt, that I was... in love? _

_And I felt, I couldn't just let him go wherever he would go and then see him never again. Somehow, I had to meet him again. But what should I tell him? Hey, Ryou, you beautiful boy with the looks of an angel I've met just half an hour ago, would you like to date me? _

_No, that would have been stupid. And maybe the feeling I felt wasn't love, maybe it was in fact just the wish for being friends with that white-haired angel. Actually, I hadn't had a friend before and I'd never had the wish to be friends with somebody, so how could I tell if that feeling was the wish for being friends with Ryou or love? I sighed inwardly. I didn't know it exactly, but I had to find it out. But the love thing was more probable, because since when did a boy describe his friend as an beautiful angel?_

_I decided to ask him for his address. _

"_Uhm... where do you live?", I asked him and his eyes widened in surprise. _

"_Uh...", he hesitated, of course. Who would give a stranger one's address? _

_Ryou would and did it. _

"_I live not far from here. Just around the corner and then at the third crossroads right. I live in one of the grey apartment buildings, apartment building C. The apartment is the 601. Top story", he described and smiled. Probably, he wanted a friend, too, or why else would he describe to me, although he didn't even know me where he lived? I tried to keep the directions in my mind._

"_Thank you, Ryou. I was glad to meet you. Maybe, we can meet again", I said to him and he nodded. Then, he turned around and went into the direction of his home._

_I sighed as I watched Ryou leave, the sinking sun in the background. _

_Then, I went towards where I decided to sleep in the night. It was a quiet place behind a bush under a bridge. Not really comfortable, but better than on the street. I packed out the blanket that was in my backpack and tucked me up. And I lay there and lay there and couldn't fall asleep. All the time I had to think of Ryou. And only then I realized something I hadn't realized before when I'd met him. Probably I'd been to enchanted to realize it, but... Ryou WAS a boy. And I WAS a boy, too. So the feeling I've had, had to be in a friendly way. It couldn't have been a feeling of love, could it? Unless... unless I was gay. _

_Now, was I gay or wasn't I? That was actually a difficult question. I'd never been interested in girls, but I'd never been interested in boys either. I'd never been interested in anybody to be precise. _

"_Gay or not gay, that is the question", I muttered to myself. And even if I was gay and that damned feeling was love... who could tell that Ryou was gay, too? _

_I sighed. Maybe he would at least be my friend. Slowly, I drifted to sleep._

_The next day, I waited until it was afternoon and then I went off and searched for Ryou's home. I went to the shop where I'd met him yesterday and then around the corner, along the street until I reached the third crossroads. There I turned right and kept straight on. There were many grey apartment buildings. So, which one was building C? I continued going. A... B... Ah! There was C! I went to the front door and then up the stairs. Ryou had said he lived on the top story. How high was this building? After six staircases I decided to take the elevator. Arriving on the top story, I went to apartment 601 and wondered if Ryou was at home at all. _

_I shrugged and rang. My heart beat heavily. Would he recognize me or had he already forgotten me? I heard steps. And then, a white-haired boy peeked through the slightly open door._

"_Hello, Ryou", I said and he opened the door completely. Surprise was written in his face. _

"_Oh, Bakura", he said and smiled. "Come in."_

_I went into his apartment and yes... that was when everything started._

_After I'd figured out that he lived alone, and he had told me what had happened to his family, I felt really sorry for him. But then I saw, that we shared almost the same sorrow. We both were alone. _

_We talked the whole afternoon and I tried to find out more about Ryou. He was a really nice guy. And... well, I now knew the answer to the question I had the last night before falling asleep. I was gay... but I didn't know if Ryou was, too. I'd just have to wait until... I didn't know until when, but some day the time I'd come to know would come. _

_Well, we became friends and from that day on I visited him every afternoon, because in the morning he was in school. _

_More than one week had passed as he asked me for my address. Then I had to tell him, what I'd tried to hide. That I lived on the street and I told him my story. As I had finished I thought that he maybe wouldn't want me to be his friend anymore, but his reaction was the opposite. He was shocked and asked why I hadn't told him before. I just stuttered something and he immediately offered that I could live with him in his apartment. I said that I couldn't accept that, but he stuck to his guns. I couldn't believe it. _

_And that was when we became best friends. And as I didn't go to school, he signed me up so that I could go to Domino High. There I met the others. I didn't like them too much, but I didn't show it, because they were Ryou's friends. _

_And soon, Ryou and I discovered, that we were actually more than best friends. And Ryou told me, that he'd had such feelings since the first time we'd met. Just like me. _

_I thought, that our loneliness connected us somehow. I could understand exactly what he felt and he understood what I felt. _

_Ryou was happy for the first time since five years and I was happy for the first time of my life. Since he'd met me, he'd started to smile and laugh, something he'd rarely done before, his friends had told me. _

_We were happy..._

I sighed. This memory made me sad. Now, Ryou was gone and I wasn't happy anymore. Yeah, there were other people, that liked me, but I didn't like them. Yugi and the others. They didn't know how it was to have your dead lover in your arms, how it was to live on the street, how it was to live without anyone who loved you, how it was to live without parents, how it was to suffer... They just didn't know how that felt. They could never understand me, never, and not a bit like Ryou did understand me. He knew how all that things felt. He had lost his whole family. And now, I had lost him.

Would I ever love anybody again? Could I ever love anybody again? Ryou had been the only one for me and I had promised him, just before he had died, that he'd be forever the only one I love.

I just stared at the ceiling. Suddenly, I thought of Malik. Why did I thought of him? I shook my head to get him out of my thoughts, but it didn't work. I saw his face before my eyes. I saw his lavender eyes staring into mine. Quickly, I shut my eyes and hoped that his face would vanish. And it did. I sighed. This strange feeling, I'd had as I'd seen him this morning... No... it couldn't be... Could it?

**Sorry, if this chapter was kinda boring. Or if it has confused you. I just had to write this, how Bakura had met Ryou and stuff, so that some day I can get this story to the point where I want it to get (or something like that).**

**And just that you know, why I let Ryou describe where he lived: I've heard that in Japan, there aren't street names, so I didn't write one. Now, is that actually true that there are no street names or am I misinformed?**

**And the 'forty thousand bucks' are of course forty thousand yen.**

**Well, please send me a review and tell me if you liked that chapter... or not. Just tell me. Oh, btw, I've enabled anonymous reviews, what means that you can send me a review even if you're not signed up or logged in. So, please review.**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	4. Chapter 4

**So, what will happen in this chapter?**

**Just so you don't wonder: In this story, Malik still has a father. And Malik hasn't got a yami. Yugi doesn't have one either. **

**//blah-blah// = thinking, just so you know.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 4**

**Malik's P.O.V**

I was in my room and looked lost in thought out of my window. It was a sunny day. It reminded me of my home, Egypt. But I wasn't in Egypt anymore, because my father got a job at the museum here in Domino and my siblings, Ishizu and Odion, got one as well. So we had to change residence.

Today had been my first day at Domino High, but it hadn't been as bad as I'd thought it would be. Okay, it had got around that I was new and everybody had stared at me, but I didn't mind.

I already had found some friends. Yugi and... I didn't remember the other names. I only knew that they were gay (all besides the girl and Yugi). Now... that was funny, wasn't it? Only I knew about them was that they were gay, I didn't even know their names. Well...

And then, there was something that had confused me. Something that bothered me. It was the white-haired boy, Bakura. He was so... unfriendly. I didn't do anything to him. But, well, I did actually understand him if what the blonde boy had said was true. That his lover had left him. If somebody, in my case a girl, would leave me, I'd be sad and irritable, too, or so I thought.

But still... I didn't do anything to him. He could at least had said 'hi' or something like that. Instead, he had looked at me like he hated me like poison. He didn't even know me and hated me already. Great. Oh well...

But... somehow, I didn't get him out of my mind. It was like he was etched on my memory. Argh... I hold my head. Why did I see him? His face, how he looked at me through his dark, sad eyes... Why?

//Maybe... you've got a little crush//

"Never."

//But it's possible.//

"No, it isn't."

//Yes, it is. Perhaps it's like a sickness.//

"..."

//The gayness is like a flu. You were already to long around these 'guys'. You've caught.//

"My ass..."

//You know that it's true.//

"..."

//See.//

"No. I'm straight."

//Right...//

"Yes!"

//Don't make me laugh!//

"I don't have feelings for him! I don't have feelings for any male human being. I'm one hundred percent straight! I like women! Got that?"

//But you see him when you close your eyes, and even if you don't close them. You've been thinking about him almost all the time since you've seen him for the first time. There has to be a reason and we both know what I'm talking about.//

"You don't know anything!"

I realized what I was doing.

"Fuck! I'm talking to myself. And I'm not only talking, I'm arguing with myself... God, I'm gonna go insane..."

I rested my palm against my forehead. I wasn't gay. I was straight. Gayness wasn't something like a flu. What nonsense! You couldn't catch it. It's your decision to be gay... isn't it?

I sighed. Likely, I was just confused because of the new school and the new people and such things. Many things were running through my head, not only that unfriendly white-haired boy. Yes, I was just confused, but not gay. I shouldn't even think something like that. Dad would kill me if I would be gay. And I wouldn't test this. No, definitely not. With things like that, my father wasn't one to be trifled with. He had strict rules about what was to do and what was not to do in the Ishtar family. And these rules were centuries old, that's the reason why he respected them so much, because everyone before him in our family did and he wouldn't allow anybody, neither me nor my siblings, to break these rules. And he would certainly think that being gay was a shame.

But after all I wasn't gay, so I had nothing to worry about.

I sighed again and slumped on my bed. But yet I wondered why Bakura hated me. Maybe I'd find out some day...

**Bakura's P.O.V**

It was the next day. I was walking to school, thinking about... nothing. My mind was totally blank. I'd managed to not think about what I'd thought yesterday afternoon, evening and night. I didn't want to think about it and I couldn't allow it either.

After I'd compared the strange feeling, that I'd had the first time I'd seen Malik, with the strange feeling, that I'd had the first time I'd met Ryou, and I'd found similarities... Well, just say I didn't want to think about it. It just couldn't be the same. But still, it felt so same.

I shrugged. Even if it was the same feeling, it didn't has to mean the same, did it? And even if it did mean the same... I hated Malik. I hated him to the core. And if you hate somebody, you can't love him. That's the way it is.

I arrived at Domino High and as always Yugi and the others were waiting for me at the gate. The Egyptian wasn't here, fortunately.

As I reached the group, they greeted me, but they made no move to go into the school building.

"What are we waiting for?", I asked.

"We're waiting for Malik. The new student, remember?", Yugi said.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, if you don't object I'm going to my locker now", I told them, not wanting to wait for the Egyptian, and went off towards the entrance of the school.

As I glanced over my shoulder, I saw them exchanging irritated, concerned and puzzled looks. I shrugged and went to my locker and then to my first class, History. I sat down on my usual seat and rested my head on my hand.

I sighed. Soon, Malik would arrive in the classroom and he would sit down on Ryou's seat, like yesterday. And then, all my anger would come up again and I would have to make an effort to not go for his throat. And I would think of Ryou again, what I already did now, because I already thought of him. I just couldn't help doing it. The smallest odds and ends let me think of him, my deceased lover, over and over again.

Why couldn't I just accept that he was dead? That he would not come back. That he was gone for eternity. Why was everything so hard?

Maybe, it was my fault. Perhaps it had been the wrong decision to not take him to a hospital, to not bury him in a graveyard, to not tell my - his - our friends the truth. Maybe, I'd again made the wrong decision. Maybe he hadn't want to be free and to float in the ocean.

Somehow, everything was my fault. Really. If I hadn't been so... - how shall I put it? - obsessed of bedding him, than he couldn't have disappointed me and he hadn't have a reason to make me happy by jumping with me from the cliff. And if we hadn't jumped, he would still be here with me and not floating somewhere in the ocean.

Why did I always fuck everything up? My own life and Ryou's as well.

I felt that somebody sat down on the seat next to me, but I didn't want to look in his direction. I didn't want to see him sitting on Ryou's seat. I didn't want to see that bronzed face again.

But yet, I just had to look at him. I didn't know why, it was just an urge to see what he was doing.

So, I shot a glance at him. I felt a slight tingling sensation in my body, a tingling that started in my fingers and went through my whole body as I'd looked at the Egyptian boy next to me. It was weird.

I glanced at him and coincidentally he looked at me at the same moment. I felt the urge to look away quickly, but I didn't do it. Instead, our eyes locked for a moment or two. His curious, lavender eyes stared into my dark ones. I couldn't exactly tell what the expression on his face meant, but it had to be a mixture of curiosity, confusion and some other feelings as well. As I looked at my desk again, I wondered what Malik was thinking right now.

//Stop! I shouldn't wonder about something like that! I hate him, what means that I don't like him//, I started arguing with myself.

//But still...//

//No! Remember Ryou!//

//Ryou's dead...//

//Because of me...//

//It makes no difference who was responsible for that. Fact is, he isn't alive anymore and he won't come back. He's dead for about a month. Time to get over him.//

//No. Never. I promised.//

//But the promise doesn't matter anymore because he has already broken his. He'd promised to stay with me forever. And? Where is he now? Obviously not here.//

//...//

//Think about it. Malik looks interesting and interested. He looks nice, too...//

//I hate Malik, remember?! I do not like him.//

//But there's actually no reason to hate him.//

//Of course there is one. Uh...//

//There isn't one.//

//...But he's straight anyway.//

//It can be helped.//

I stopped arguing with myself now, because for one thing the teacher came in and for another thing arguing with yourself showed kinda insaneness.

The entire period, I didn't look at Malik again. I... was kinda frightened. Frightened of myself. Frightened about forgetting Ryou completely if I would like anybody else. No, I couldn't love anybody else anymore. I couldn't forget Ryou and I didn't want it either. I had promised him to love him forever and I would keep my promise.

Yes, it was true. I somehow had a little crush on Malik. I had the same feeling as when I'd met Ryou and there was this tingling in my whole body whenever I looked at him. Yes, I loved Malik, but I also hated him. I hated him for confusing me and my feelings. I simply didn't know what to feel, to think, to do...

That just freaked me out.

As soon as History was over, I ran out of the classroom, away from the person that confused me so much and I headed to my next class.

At lunch time, I sat down at the table in the cafeteria where we, meaning Yugi, the others and me, always sat. Malik came to the table, too. I didn't look at him, because then the tingling would come back and my feelings would be mad again.

I just stared at the table and chewed on my food, whatever it was. I listened to what the others and Malik were talking about. They laughed and joked, something they hadn't done for a while, what was probably my fault, because wherever I was, there was a sad atmosphere and nobody did dare to joke. But now, it was different. It was as if where Malik was, happiness was.

I didn't like that. That everybody was happy now, not sad and depressed and mourning like me, made me angry somehow. Had they already forgotten Ryou? okay, they didn't know that he was dead, but they knew that he had just gone away. Without any good-bye. Weren't they concerned somehow? Apparently not...

I was happy as lunch time was over and went to my next class.

After school, I met Yugi and the others at the gate.

"Hey, Bakura!", the tri-color haired boy said cheerfully, "Do you wanna go to the shopping center with us? We want to show it Malik. Are you coming with us?"

I shook my head. "No", I muttered. Then I turned and walked off home. On the way home, I thought, something I did really often lately.

I just couldn't decide, if I hated Malik now, or if I liked him. I came to the conclusion, that I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't, because I liked him.

But... I couldn't like him! I had to think of Ryou and the promise I've given him. I had to keep it. I couldn't like Malik. No way. It... was just so complicated.

It would be best to forget Ryou, but I wouldn't do that. I couldn't. He died because he tried to make me happy. He hadn't deserved to be dead. I couldn't allow myself to forget him. I had promised him to love him forever and I had to keep my promise, because I adored Ryou.

And then, there was Malik. I just knew him since yesterday. At the one hand I hated him and at the other hand I liked or loved him. I didn't know why, it simply was like that. And that was what confused me so much. I didn't know why I loved him, neither did I know why I hated him.

I arrived at my apartment, went in and slumped on my bed. Argh... what should I do? Did I hate Malik now or did I love him? Or at least like him like a friend? It was difficult to say.

Maybe I just should watch him for a while and decide then how I would go on. Yeah, I would just watch Malik a while and some time I would know if I hated or loved him...

**Wow, now I'm just as confused as Bakura. ;)  
Poor guy. On one hand he still loves Ryou and can't let go of him, because of his promise and because he feels guilty for what had happened and on the other hand he hates Malik but loves him at the same time. What shall he do? I wouldn't like to be in his shoes.**

**I really would be glad if more people would review to my chapters. It's frustrating if I get only few reviews (btw thanks for the reviews I got). **

**So please, just tell me if you like this story or not. One word would be enough.**

**Don't forget to review!!!**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks for the reviews. I'm always happy when I can read reviews.**

**Well, enjoy the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 5**

By now, it was Friday. Two days had passed by. I had watched Malik whenever I'd seem him, but I hadn't have another word with him since Monday, when he'd asked me if I was alright and had tried to become friends with me.

I didn't know what I should do. Should I talk to him? After I'd been so mean at his first day at school? Hmm...

I sat in the History classroom, like every morning. Class hadn't started yet. I looked at the empty seat beside me. Malik wasn't here yet. Surely, he would arrive soon.

And as expected, he arrived just two minutes later in the classroom. As he walked towards his seat, I watched him and he caught me. He stood in front of his desk and stared at me. I stared back. As almost always his expression was nosy. The look in his eyes demanded for an explanation why I was watching him constantly and I opened my mouth slightly, 'cause I wanted to say something, but nothing came to my mind, so I closed my mouth again. He sat down and somehow I thought that he had sighed. Disappointed? Irritated? I didn't know it.

The teacher came in and class started.

"So, for the next few History class hours", she said, "you will make a partner presentation, always two by two." What? A partner presentation? But... maybe this could help me. Of course only if I'd get Malik as my partner. Then I'd have to talk with him and I would find out how he is.

"You can work in the school library or in the computer room or at home. That's up to you", she continued. "You can start in this class hour and you have the entire weekend to work on the presentation. From Monday on, you can present it to the class. It shall last about fifteen minutes. I'll tell you now who you're partner is and then I'll tell you your theme."

Oh god. Would I get Malik or not? If yes, would this then be good or not? I could get to know him better and then I would finally come to know if I really liked him or not. I mean, my feelings said yes, I liked him, but my head wasn't sure about that.

"So", the teacher continued, "I announce who your partner is." I just listened if my name or Malik's name would be said. After a few others students, she said Malik's name.

"Malik, your partner is", she began and my heart beat heavily against my chest. Would it be me or would it be somebody else? Please let it be me...

"Bakura", she finished.

Ha! My request was heard. I looked at Malik who looked at me. We stared into each others eyes. I couldn't tell if he was angry or happy about me being his partner. He had sort of a mask on his face. Unreadable.

But I was happy about it, though I didn't show it to him. I could put on a mask, too.

The teacher came to us and told us our theme. As she was gone on, I spoke to Malik.

"Let's get started, eh?", I said to him and smiled at him. He looked at me like I was crazy or something.

"Okay", he said, somewhat suspicious, "Where do you wanna work?"

"Uh... Library?", I asked.

"Alright", he said and stood up. I stood up as well and followed him out of the classroom.

"Do you actually know where the library is?", I asked him. Certainly, he hadn't been there by now. This was his fifth day here, after all.

Malik stopped walking and looked at me. Then, he grinned.

"No, not really, actually", he said and ran with his hand through his hair. His grin made my heart beat faster for a moment, but it slowed instantly back down to its normal speed.

"Well, then follow me", I told him and led him to the library. We put our bags on a table in the corner of the room and started to scan the bookshelves for books about methods of torture in medieval times, our theme.

We were the only students of our class that searched in the library for information. The others all checked on the Internet. I had expected this, that's because I choose the library instead. It was quiet here and maybe I could get into a conversation with him here.

But at first, it didn't look like this would ever happen. Quietly, both of us looked in another section of the library. Probably, Malik didn't want to talk to me.

"Hey, I think I found the right book", Malik suddenly said. "Come here, Bakura." I froze with my hand at the back of a book as he said my name. My heart beat heavily against my chest again. My name coming out of his mouth, it had sound so... nice. I just stared at the books in front of me. My feelings went completely haywire. I couldn't tell why, it just sounded so right when he said my name. I breathed fitfully. I had to be completely nuts if I was glad about somebody saying my name. No, not somebody. About Malik saying my name. Even so, it wasn't a big deal, but somehow my feelings didn't understand that.

"Hey, are you alright?", Malik asked, suddenly standing next to me as I hadn't come to him.

I looked at him and blinked. "Yeah... I-I'm alright", I assured him.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked me into my eyes with a stern expression. "Okay", he said then.

"I've found the right book", he continued and I followed him to the table where our bags lay. "It's called 'Torture in the dark ages'", he told me. "I think that is exactly the book we need."

I nodded and looked absentmindedly out of the window.

"Bakura..." He said it again! Okay, it was my name, but when he said it, it was like... I didn't know, it was just special. To me, anyway. I looked at him.

"Are you sure that you're alright? You're absent-minded. Your friends told me that you're like this a lot since...", he hesitated. I knew what he wanted to say. But would he say it?

"Since your boyfriend has left you." Apparently, he did. I didn't mind that.

I lowered my head. What should I answer him? Yes, I often thought of Ryou, but I also often thought of him, Malik, lately.

"They've also told me that you used to be humorous and that you've joked a lot. And now, you're the exact opposite. You're sad and depressed and quiet and reserved. I didn't know how you've been before, Bakura. I just know you like you are at the moment. But I believe that what they say is true, right?", he said. I nodded, my bangs covering my eyes.

"Y-Yes, it's true", I whispered.

"You know, at first I thought you're a guy I wanted to be friends with. Then, I thought you're a total jerk. But as you're friends had told me more about you, I thought again that you're somebody that would be worth being friends with", Malik told me. I didn't do anything.

"Can I tell you something?", he asked.

"Go ahead", I muttered, wondering what he would like to tell me.

"I think, you should forget the guy that has left you", he said. I looked at him. "I think you should forget him and be like you've been before, humorous, joking and stuff. I really would like to get to know the guy you've been before. Don't cling to the past, Bakura. Is he really worth it that you're thinking about him all the time? And that you're sad and depressed?"

I sighed inwardly. Yes, _they both _were worth it. Ryou was worth it to be sad and depressed, after all he was dead and if I had told the others, they probably would be like that, too. And Malik was worth it to rack my brain and think about him almost all the time.

I shrugged as an answer.

"No, I think he isn't worth it. If somebody leaves one like you, he doesn't deserve it to be mourned after. Your friends think that, too", Malik said. Under the table, I clenched my fist. If they would knew what really had happened, they wouldn't even think something like that. But, as many other things, too, this was my fault. If I hadn't done the things the way I'd done them, meaning that if I would have told them that Ryou was dead,... well, then I wouldn't think this now. But, sadly, I'd done the things already the wrong way.

There was a long and uncomfortable silence. We just stared at each other. He had a concerned and also pitying look in his eyes. Neither of us knew anything to say.

"Well, we should really start to search in the book for the information we need", Malik broke the silence. I nodded and we started to look for information.

As the bell rang, I quickly packed my things together.

"I see you at lunch", Malik said to me.

"Yeah", I told him and walked to my next class.

On the way to the classroom, I thought. Now, Malik and I were becoming friends. I was somehow surprised about the fact that Malik worried about me. I hadn't expected that. He must have questioned Yugi and the others about me. But I was sort of unhappy, too, because again they had talked about Ryou as if he was a bad person. And now Malik thought this, too. But Ryou wasn't or hadn't been a bad person. If they only would knew what really had happened. I felt so sorry about the fact that they all thought of him like that. It was unfair. I moaned inwardly. There were so many things I'd done wrong. So many things...

At lunch time, I did the same I did every day at that time. Today, I was the first at our table. Lost in thought about Ryou and Malik and decisions I'd made, I picked at my food. The others arrived meanwhile, without saying a word.

And at last Malik arrived.

"Hey, Bakura", he said, smiling, and I looked up. The others stared stunned at him. Certainly, they hadn't expected Malik to say anything at all to me.

"Hi", I said to him. Now, the others stared at me. Certainly, they hadn't expected me to say something, because I'd rarely said anything at all lately.

Malik took his chair and shoved it between the chair where I sat and the one where Joey sat as usual next to me. Yugi and the others watched him.

"So", Malik began as he finally sat down besides me, "you know we have to finish the presentation at the weekend. Where do you wanna work on with it?"

"Uh... It makes no difference to me", I told him. He nodded.

"But... it would be better if we wouldn't go to my place, 'cause it's a bit messy there because of all the moving cartons", he explained.

"Oh", I said. "We can of course work at my place."

"If you don't mind", Malik said. "How about tomorrow afternoon?"

"Fine by me", I told him.

"'Kay", Malik said. "Then I'll come to you tomorrow at let's say two?"

I nodded.

The rest of lunch time, Malik spent talking with Yugi and the others and I spent with thinking.

So, Malik was my friend now. The feeling of hate I had, had disappeared. But the feelings that told me that I liked or loved him, were still there. I didn't know if I really loved him. I sighed. Why was this so confusing?

Probably, because the person I loved to death (haha, very funny...) was dead and I just couldn't let go of him. Because I had made a promise and wanted to keep it. Because it was my fault that he was dead and that everybody thought bad about him.

And also I wasn't sure if I loved Malik, because I knew that even if I'd love him, he certainly wouldn't love me. He was straight, what meant that he didn't have the hots for boys. So, even if I would love him , he wouldn't return my love.

As school was over and I was at home, I realized that the apartment was anything but clean, so I tidied up so that tomorrow, when Malik would come here, we wouldn't have to sit between garbage.

For the first time since Ryou was dead, I felt normal again. Not very normal, but not as depressed or sad as the last weeks. Maybe it had been a good thing, that I'd decided to become friends with Malik. Maybe, this decision wasn't bad like the others I'd made. Maybe... maybe I could love again. Not as much as I had loved and still loved Ryou, but maybe a bit.

As I walked into my room, I noticed that I hadn't been in Ryou's room since he was gone. But I wasn't ready to go in there. It would make me sad again. It would remind me of Ryou again and all the things we'd done together. It was better not to go in there now. Not when I didn't feel as bad as I felt for a long time now.

**Malik's P.O.V**

I sat at my desk, my forehead rested against my palm.

//Why do I feel so... different when I'm around him?//, I asked myself. //He's a boy and I think about him in ways I shouldn't. I shouldn't have those feelings or feel this... attraction to him. It's not right.//

It really wasn't right. I was a boy and he was one as well. I've never been interested in boys before. But he... Bakura was different. With his white hair and his dark eyes and his pale skin... And every time I saw him, sad and lost in thoughts, thinking about what he had lost, I felt miserable myself. To see somebody suffering because of a broken relationship... I just couldn't just watch him suffering. I had to help him somehow so that he would be happy again and stuff, and maybe this presentation we made together would help me in taking his mind off his thoughts about his ex-boyfriend.

//I knew it would end up like this. I've already said from the beginning that you have feelings for him. But no, you didn't believe me. You've got feelings for a boy. You're gay. I was right.//

//Oh, just shut the fuck up!//, I told myself. Okay, this was weird. I really should stop arguing with myself. That wasn't normal.

But it also was not normal to have such feelings for somebody with the same gender.

//Oh... What shall I do? I can't be gay. Dad would go crazy if he'd know that I even considered that.//

//He would go more than crazy.//

//Yes. Of course he would go more than crazy. Something like gayness is something he doesn't want in his family. It would be a disgrace to him, if he'd know how I thought about a boy. He would... I don't know. I don't wanna think about what he might do if he'd know about my feelings.//

I sighed. //But how much longer can I hide how I feel about Bakura? Whenever I see him, my heart nearly jumps out of my chest and my pulse is racing. But I can't tell anyone about it. If my father would get wind of it, he'd certainly wouldn't be pleased.//

I sighed again. This was a difficult matter. And I didn't even know, if Bakura liked me or not. I wouldn't forgive it myself if I'd make an ass of myself when I'd tell him that I liked him, more than a friend, and he would laugh at me or would tell me that he wouldn't like me, at least not more than any of his other friends.

Well, at least we were friends by now, but that didn't mean that we could be boyfriends. His heart was already taken. Taken by someone who didn't even love him.

Maybe I would find out how he thought about me when I'd work with him on the presentation tomorrow. Perhaps he would tell me more about himself and hopefully, my heart wouldn't beat as fast as it had today when I spoke to him. And hopefully, he would forget his lover and would be happy and not depressed anymore, like before his boyfriend had left him.

And I sighed for the third time now.

Oh, why was life so complicated?

**I hope you liked this chapter.**

**If you wanna know how this is going on, then you'll have to wait for the next chapter, I'm afraid. But don't worry, I'll give my best to write and update the next one as soon as possible.**

**Don't forget to review!!!**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for the reviews. Here we go! Chapter 6!!!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 6**

**Bakura's P.O.V**

Saturday morning, I woke up and I didn't feel as miserable as the past weeks. Somehow, I looked forward to work with Malik today. The whole morning I felt tingly and jittery. I went from one window to the next and looked out, waiting for the tanned boy with sand colored hair to appear, though he wouldn't arrive here until two in the afternoon and it was only eleven. Hopefully, Malik would find my place with the directions I'd given him.

I slumped on the couch and turned the TV on. I was bored. That reminded me of the boredom I'd had whenever Ryou had gone to the store. I sighed.

Oh, Ryou. Why did you just leave me alone? I stared at the ceiling and dreamed of one of the wonderful times I'd had with Ryou.

_*flashback*_

_It was Christmas eve. Ryou and I were now more than six months together. This would be the first Christmas I'd spend with him. The first Christmas in my life I'd be happy. Neither in the orphanage nor while I lived as a thief on the street, I'd liked Christmas. Christmas was the time of love, the time of happiness, the time everybody spent with his family. But I'd never had a family. In the orphanage we did celebrate Christmas but somehow it hadn't been happy. I'd always been sad and unhappy, especially because so many other orphans had been adopted then, but nobody had ever chosen me. _

_For me, Christmas had been the saddest time of the year. As I'd lived on the street and had been a thief I'd always watched people running stressed from one shop into another one, buying presents for their loved ones. Nobody bought me any presents. But, of course, in this time of the year it was a lot more easy to steal their purses and stuff, but money wasn't everything, was it?_

_But now, I had Ryou. This year, none of us would have to spend Christmas alone like the years before. No, this year I would celebrate with Ryou. I would make Ryou happy and I'd give him a present, because it was a long time ago since he'd gotten the last Christmas present. The question was, what._

_What should I give him? I'd thought about a present for him for weeks and nothing had come to my mind. Now, I had not much time left to find something he'd like. _

_Today was already Christmas eve. So, I'd made a list of things I could buy him. Nothing too expensive, because we didn't have much money._

_I was standing in front of a little shop and eyed the list I'd made again:_

_-----------_

_A book (but he already had so much books)_

_A pet (too expensive and too time-consuming)_

_One half of a Ying and Yang necklace that would somehow symbolize our relationship and he would have one half of it and I'd have the other one (cheesy but a good idea)_

_Roses (It's Christmas not Valentine's day)_

_-----------_

_Well, these were all the things that had come to my mind. Not much. I didn't even know why I took the list with me at all, 'cause I wouldn't buy anything that was on it anyway. Maybe if I'd really find nothing else than I'd buy the necklace._

_I sighed. This was the fifth shop I would visit today. Hopefully, I would finally find something I could give Ryou._

_So I went into the little shop and looked around. _

_And the first thing I saw caught my attention. It was a small glass statue of an angel, that looked surprisingly similar to Ryou. Long white hair, pale skin, light pink lips... It looked so beautiful. I had to buy it for Ryou. That was a nice present. Certainly, Ryou would find it beautiful, too. Hopefully._

_At home, Ryou was busy with decorating the apartment. We even had bought a Christmas tree, something Ryou hadn't have for about six years. He looked so happy. I smiled and went quickly and quietly into my room, so that he wouldn't see my present for him. _

_I gift-wrapped the angel and hid it in my closet under some clothes of mine, so Ryou wouldn't find it. _

_The rest of the evening, we spend with cuddling on the couch._

_Ryou had fallen asleep in my arms and I carried him gently into his bed, before I went into my room. Now that he was asleep, I could position the gift-wrapped angel under the Christmas tree, so that Ryou would easily find it when he'd wake up tomorrow morning._

_Then, I went into my bed and slept._

_..............._

"_Hey, 'Kura!"_

_//Not yet//, I thought. Whoever wanted to wake me up did obviously not know that I needed my sleep or I'd be very grumpy._

"_Come on."_

_Dozily, I mumbled something and turned around to continue sleeping._

_I heard somebody sighing and then I felt somebody crawling under the covers of my bed._

_Sleepy, I turned around again to see what was going on and suddenly, I felt soft lips against my own ones._

_//Ryou//, I thought and opened my eyes. _

_Ryou broke the kiss and smiled._

"_Merry Christmas, 'Kura",he said._

_I smiled back. "Merry Christmas, Ry", I said, a bit sleepy._

_He chuckled and stroke the bangs out of my face._

"_Thanks for the angel. It's beautiful", Ryou said._

"_Just as you", I told him and closed my eyes again._

"_Hey, come on. Stand up. I've got a present for you, too", he said, took my hand and tried to pull me out of the bed._

"_Hey!", I protested, "I liked the first part of this, but this part isn't much to my liking."_

"_Get a move on!", he said. He was excited. Certainly, he couldn't await to see my face when I'd open the present he had for me._

_I sighed and stood up, smiling. Ryou pulled me through my room and into the living room, to the Christmas tree. He kneeled down and pulled something flat, thin and rectangular out from under the Christmas tree. He gave it to me._

"_Merry Christmas, again", he said. _

_I smiled at him._

"_Open it already", he urged._

"_Okay", I said and removed the gift-paper that was wrapped around it._

_It was a photo collage with photos of Ryou and me. I looked at it. This was such a nice idea! Why hadn't I had the idea to make a collage?_

"_And? Do you like it?", Ryou asked expectantly._

_I grinned and kissed him on his forehead._

"_Of course I like it! How could I not? It's beautiful. I would've never come to such a nice idea. Have you done this yourself?", I asked him._

_He nodded. "Yes. I couldn't think of anything you'd like, so I decided to make a collage with photos of us."_

_I looked at the photos. There were photos that had been taken on Ryou's birthday, photos of Halloween, photos of us in the park and more. All our happy moments we'd had together were on this collage._

"_Thank you, Ry", I said, "It's the best present I've ever gotten." A wide smile appeared on his angelic face and I started to kiss him again._

I woke up and looked confused around me. I lay on the couch. I touched my cheek and felt that it was wet. Apparently, I had cried while sleeping.

I could slap myself for dreaming that. Finally I'd felt better and now... Now I felt again like my heart was ripped in pieces. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

Something came into my mind. Where was that angel I'd given Ryou on the Christmas I'd just dreamed of? The angel still must be here anywhere. But where?

I started to search in several cupboards and drawers. Finally, I found the angel. I took it into my hand and turned it slowly. It somehow glittered in the light. And it looked so damned similar to Ryou. A warm tear ran down my face and landed on the glass-angel.

In this moment, the door bell rang. I clenched my fingers around the miniature Ryou with wings. Another warm tear landed on my hand. Ryou had loved this present. It felt like a part of him was in it. But that didn't solace me. It only made my pain worse.

The door bell rang again and I consulted a watch. It was five past two. This had to be Malik. Quickly, I perched the angel on a shelf. Then, I went to the door. Remembering that I had cried and my eyes had to be red, I paused for a second.

"Uh... just a moment", I called and hoped that Malik would hear it.

Quickly, I wiped away the tears with my sleeve and dried my wet cheeks as well. Again I took a deep breath. Then, I opened the door.

**Malik's P.O.V**

I finally found the apartment building where Bakura lived and rode with the elevator up to the top story. I was nervous and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. As I arrived at apartment 601, I took a deep breath before I rang.

Nothing happened. Would he have forgotten about me coming today? My heart beat speeded up. I rang again and then I heard quick paces, approaching the door.

"Uh... just a moment", I heard Bakura say on the other side of the door. I wondered what he was doing.

Just a few moments later, he opened the door.

"Hi", I said as I walked in. I looked at Bakura. He smiled, but it was a weak and unconvincing smile. And... his eyes were kinda red. Had he been crying?

"Hey, Malik", Bakura said and led me into the living room. "You can sit down if you will", he said and I sat down on the couch. "I just fetch us something to drink." Then, he disappeared.

I wondered why he had cried before I came. But, surely because of his ex. I sighed and looked around. It was a small apartment. I wondered how he could live in such a small apartment with his parents. It seemed as if they weren't here at the moment.

Bakura came back with two drinking glasses and a bottle of coke. As he filled the glasses, there was a uncomfortable silence. I decided to break it.

"So, are your parents not here at the moment?", I asked. He looked at me with a strange expression on his face, like if I was crazy or something.

"Uhm...", he began, "No. They aren't here."

I nodded and took a sip of my coke.

"Oh, I have the book with the information we need with me", I told him and he nodded. Then, we started to work on our presentation. We didn't talk much. We just read in silence in the book, everyone for himself.

It was hard for me to concentrate on our work, because all the time I thought about what Bakura might think at the moment and I glanced at him constantly. My feelings were so confused and I imagined things of Bakura and me, I shouldn't imagine. I chewed on my lower lip and tried to concentrate on our presentation, but it was so difficult to not look at the beautiful pale boy with white hair and dark eyes besides me.

Yes, I'd finally admitted it to myself that I had a crush on him. But I didn't know what should be my next step. There were so much things I was afraid of. What if my father would get to hear of the fact that I was in love with a boy? If he'd know it, things would be bad for me. In his view, I'd stain the name of the Ishtar family and our rules and traditions. I didn't know what he would do, but surely he would do something against it. Maybe he would try to talk me out of it, but of course I wouldn't listen to him. I wouldn't let my life get ruled by my father or anybody else. He could punish me for thinking how I thought, but he couldn't brainwash me, could he?

And then, I was also afraid that Bakura would turn me down. I was afraid of getting hurt, how stupid that might sound. Somehow, I had to find out if he likes me in the same way I like him, or if he doesn't. But I couldn't simply ask him. What if he'd laugh at me? I mean, I didn't know him that long, so that I couldn't foresee his reaction.

Some time, I'd tell him about my feelings. Some time, but not today.

**Bakura's P.O.V**

I sighed mentally. That wasn't what I had expected us doing today. I had expected that Malik and I would talk and stuff, but instead we just worked in silence. That wasn't what I wanted. I had hoped that we would get to know each other better, but instead we were silent. Every ten seconds I looked at him. Again, I felt this tingling sensation that went through my body every time I saw Malik. My heart beat speeded up and I couldn't think clear anymore.

I didn't look back at the book. I just stared at him, at his beautiful face, at his lips that were slightly apart, his sand-colored hair that fell into his eyes, his bronzed skin...

Suddenly, he looked in my direction and caught me at watching him. His lavender eyes stared into my dark ones for a brief moment. Malik blushed and averted his gaze.

Like before, there was an uncomfortable silence. I decided that if I had to say something finally, because I wanted so badly to talk with him, to get closer to him.

"Malik?", I asked hesitantly.

He looked at me and raised one eyebrow. "Yes?", he said.

"I... uh", I stuttered.

//Think about something you can say, think about something you can say...//, I told myself.

Malik waited for me to say something, with a confused and curious expression.

"Why did you move to Japan from Egypt anyway?", I asked, after I'd decided that it would be best if I'd first find out some facts about Malik.

"Well", he began to explain, "My father got a good job at the museum here, and my siblings as well, so we all moved to Domino, 'cause I couldn't live on my own in Egypt. I had no choice."

"Do you like it here?", I asked him.

He thought about it a moment. "Actually, it's not as bad here as I had expected. It's not as warm as back in Egypt, but it isn't cold either. I was afraid that it would be cold and I'd have to wear a coat and stuff", he said and smiled.

I smiled back at him. Great, we finally had a real conversation. Hopefully, I wouldn't screw it up.

"You said you had siblings", I said.

Malik nodded. "Yes, I have an older sister, Ishizu, and an older brother, Odion. But they're okay." I nodded.

"What about you?", he asked me. "Do you have siblings?"

"No", I simply said. Somehow, it sounded like a matter of course to me to answer with 'no', but now that I thought of it, nobody had ever asked me that question and I wasn't quite sure if I had siblings or not. I didn't know my parents, after all, and I didn't even know if they were alive or married or whatever. Somehow, I didn't care at all about it. It didn't matter to me, because I had been all the same to them. They hadn't wanted me.

Malik looked at me. And I looked back. We just stared at each other for a while. Then, he grinned and we both began to snicker.

My heart triumphed. Eventually I got closer to him. We laughed together and had talked. We were on the best way to become really good friends, or so I hoped.

As we had finished our presentation about 'methods of torture in medieval age', Malik had to go home.

"Sorry, Bakura", he said, "But if I'm late, my dad will get slightly angry. Anyway, I hope we can do this again soon."

"What? A History presentation?", I asked, joking.

He snickered. "No, that hopefully not. Actually I meant coming to you. It was quite funny."

My heart jumped happy in my chest. "Yeah. Visit me whenever you like. That's fine by me", I said and smiled.

Malik nodded. "Then, see you on Monday in school", he said.

"Sure", I told him. Then, he was out of my apartment and I closed the door. I sighed.

As Malik had arrived here, he had brought happiness with him. Now, that he was gone, happiness was gone as well. Nobody was here to distract me, and I thought of Ryou. I slumped down on the couch.

//Oh, Ryou... I'm so sorry, if I might can't keep the promise I'd given you... It's just so hard to keep it now that you aren't here anymore. I hope, you will forgive me if I should break the promise//, I thought. Hopefully, Ryou would forgive me... some day, at least...

**Well, that was chapter 6. **

**I hope you all liked it. Bakura and Malik are finally getting closer. Isn't that nice? **

**And, I have to say (or write) it again, that I would look forward on getting more reviews. I really like to hear what people think about my story. So don't hesitate, just send me a short (or better a really long) review and I'll be happy. ;)**

**By the way, has anybody besides me seen the YGOTAS episode 36 yet? :)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	7. Chapter 7

**And this is chapter 7. Thanks for the reviews I got, by the way.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 7**

It was Monday again and I was walking to school.

I was really glad that the weekend was finally over. Now, I could see Malik again. Yesterday had been so boring. The whole day I'd watched TV to distract me from thinking of Ryou and feeling miserable and from thinking of Malik and feeling... impatient to see him again.

Saturday had been so nice. Malik had been in my apartment! In my living room! On my couch! There's nothing better than that. Well... except for Malik being in my bed. With me... What had not happened yet. That would of course be much better, but of such things I could only dream, at the moment at least. I should be satisfied with what I'd achieved up to now.

Malik and I were friends now. And hopefully, we'd soon become more than only friends. If I only would know if Malik thought about me as I thought about him. But he had said that he was straight, so there was just a minimal chance that he'd love me, but some day... maybe not today, but perhaps tomorrow... he would love me. But somehow... I got the feeling that he likes me, too. More than a friend, I mean. Maybe he wasn't as straight as he had claimed to be. I only could hope that.

So, I arrived at the school gate, where Yugi, Tea, Tristan and Duke where waiting. Malik was apparently not here yet. But suddenly, somebody called my name.

"Hey! Bakura! Yo!" I paused and turned to see who was calling me, but of course I'd already recognized the voice. As soon as I saw Malik running up to me, my heart beat began to speed up slightly and I could do nothing but smile. He had an adorable grin on his face himself.

"Yo, Bakura!", Malik called.

"Hey Malik!", I said as he stood beside me. Again, this tingling sensation ran through my body and my heart jumped excited up and down in my chest. "How's it going?", I finally managed to say, though my heart beat so loud that I nearly could not hear what I was saying. Quickly, I tried to calm down.

"Fine", he answered and put a hand on my shoulder. My heart beat began to speed up as I had recognized the touch. I looked down at the hand and then, I looked at him. His eyes widened for a split second and he pulled his hand quickly away, a light blush on his face. I smirked.

//You could have let your hand where it was. I didn't mind//, I thought.

Malik shoved his hands in his pockets and we walked side by side to Yugi and the others, who all had strange expressions on their faces, a mixture of concern, confusion and shock. But should they think what they wanted.

As Malik and I reached them, they looked alternately to Malik and to me. This was funny, kinda.

"What?", I asked. "Why are you staring at me?", I snapped, deliberately.

They all raised their hands, nearly at once, in an innocent gesture.

"It's nothing. Uh... How was your weekend?", Tea asked quickly. I had to smirk.

"Great", Malik and I said in unison, what made us snicker. The others just stared at us with wide unbelieving eyes. Of course, I couldn't hold it against them, that they were puzzled.

My mood had done a 180, I recognized it myself. For more than a whole month, I hadn't laughed and stuff, I just had been depressed and sad. Now laughing again after such a long time of grief felt kinda strange.

And then, they probably were surprised that Malik was friends with me by now, because at the start last week, I had been the opposite of nice to him.

At this moment, a black limousine stopped next to us and Joey came out.

"Hi guys", the blonde said as he reached us. He looked at everyone of us and his look stopped at me. I frowned my brow slightly.

"What's up with you?", Joey asked, a confused and suspicious look in his eyes.

"With me?", I said. "What should be with me?" Somehow, this was slowly getting annoying.

Joey looked at the others, and they just shrugged. "Never mind", he said and shrugged, too.

I sighed. First, they'd tried to cheer me up after Ryou 'disappeared', what had been really annoying, because they'd said that everything was not so bad, with what they've been totally wrong. Then after a while, they'd sort of ignored me and my sadness and hadn't even tried to speak to me, 'cause it would have been worthless as I mostly had refused to talk with them anyway. And now that I was 'normal' again or at least not depressed anymore, they looked at me like I was crazy or like they had hallucinations. What did they want? Shouldn't they be happy that I was happy again after such a long time of sorrow? Why did they have to look at me like this? Should I be sad again? Was that what they wanted?

"Well, I think we should go in", Yugi said, again as cheerful as always, and smiled.

"Yeah, let's go", Tristan said and we all went off towards the entrance.

"Why did you come so late today, Joey?", Duke asked.

"Well, Seto and I had something to talk over, Joey answered.

"Really? Something to TALK over, huh?", Tristan grinned.

"Yes, something to TALK over!", Joey said. "Why do you always think that we're doing it every time I come some minutes later than normal?!"

"Because usually, that's the reason for you coming later", Duke answered smirking. Yugi, Malik and Tea grinned as well about the fact that Joey's face had turned slightly red. And even I couldn't hide a small smile.

Joey rolled his eyes. "Fine. Think what you want, but..."

"But?", Yugi asked.

"But...", Joey repeated, "You know what?"

"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell us soon", Duke said.

"Yeah, I've got good news and hopefully, all of you have no plans for Friday night", Joey said.

"And why?", Malik asked.

"Because...", Joey paused for a second as if to make it more suspenseful, "Because I've talked Seto into letting me have a party at the mansion on Friday!"

"Great!", Tristan said, "It's about time that he's letting you have a party again."

Joey and the others agreed. Well, I didn't know if I'd go to the party. I'd only go if Malik would come, too.

I looked at Malik. He looked like he was deep in thought, so I didn't want to bother him. I just looked at him, while I moved on. He was thinking, thinking about something I really wished to know. But, unfortunately, I couldn't read minds (what would had helped me in various past situations), so I didn't know what he was thinking about at the moment. Malik chewed on his lower lip and ran with his tongue over it and... somehow it turned me on, though I really didn't know why.

As we reached the lockers, our group separated and Malik and I went to History class.

"What are you thinking about?", I asked him on our way to the classroom.

It took him a moment to react. He looked at me and blinked. "Huh?"

"I've asked you what are you thinking about", I repeated.

"Uh...", he hesitated, "Nothing."

"Is it because of the party?", I asked.

Malik looked me into the eyes, smiled and nodded. "Yeah..."

"Are you going there?", I asked him nosily and wished that he would go, because then I would go, too.

We arrived at the classroom and went to our seats. Malik shrugged to answer my last question.

"I don't know that yet", he said and I nodded. "But I wondered..."

"Yeah?"

"Are you going there?", he asked and looked me into my eyes. His lavender eyes stared into my dark ones.

I didn't know what I should say. //Only if you go//, I thought.

"I-I don't know that yet, too", I told him.

The teacher came in and class started. Today, we had to present our partner-presentations. Some other students came first, and then it was Malik's and my turn. But I think, we did a good job.

As History class was over, I went to my next class. I would meet Malik at lunch time.

So, as it was lunch time, I waited in front of the classroom where Malik had been in and he was a bit surprised to see me waiting for him.

"And? Have you decided if you go to the mansion or not?", I asked him.

Malik sighed. "Nah. I don't know if I go there. I don't even know where the mansion is...", he muttered.

"But that's no problem. I know where the mansion is. I fetch you at your home or you come to me and we go there together", I sputtered. Malik raised an eyebrow, but smiled.

"So, you've decided to go there?", he asked me.

"I... uh...", I stuttered and shrugged. "If you'd go there, I'd go, too...", I mumbled.

Malik smiled. "Well, in that case, I have to go. I don't wanna be the reason for you missing the fun you could have there", he said.

"No, no", I said quickly, "I didn't mean to force you to go to the party."

"I know that, of course", Malik told me, "I wanna go myself there. It'll be fun."

I nodded. //But only because you will be there//, I thought.

In the cafeteria we sat down at the table where Yugi and the others were already waiting.

"So, are you coming to the party?", Joey asked.

"Yeah", Malik said and I nodded.

"Great!", Joey said. "You can of course bring people with you, if you want to. The more, the better, right?"

"Yeah Joey, but remember the last party? The whole mansion was full of people and we didn't even know most of them", Tristan said.

"And the gatecrashers that wrecked half of the mansion? Do you remember them?", Duke asked.

"Of course I remember them", Joey answered. "How could I forget that? It took us, well actually it took the servants days to clean up the mess they'd made."

"No wonder that Seto hadn't let you having a party for almost two month", Tristan said.

"I still wonder how you could persuade him", Duke said, grinning.

"Well, I have my ways", Joey smirked.

We all spent the lunch time talking, something I hadn't done for a while now. Talking with them at lunch time.

As school was over for today, I walked home after I'd said goodbye to Malik.

I was so happy that he would go with me to the party. Well, it wouldn't be like a date or something, but it came near to it.

I hadn't been at a party for a while now. The last had been Joey's party two months ago (yes, the one with the gatecrashers and stuff. It had been quite interesting...) and I had been there with Ryou. Ryou, Ryou, Ryou...

I sighed. That was already so long ago. Many things had changed since then.

I sighed again. Till Friday, it was still a long time. Hopefully, these three days would get over quickly, so that it would soon be Friday night and I could go to the party with Malik.

**Malik's P.O.V**

I sat down on my bed. So... Friday, I would go to the party... with Bakura. My heart jumped with joy only at the thought. That was going to be great. I was glad that he had said that he would go there, too, because I wouldn't have gone there alone, I mean without him. Maybe that would be a good time to show him how I felt about him. I couldn't hide it any longer. Perhaps, he already had realized my feelings, but perhaps not. I didn't know. All I could do was hope that, when I would tell him that I loved him, he would return my love. I didn't know what I would do if he wouldn't. I just didn't know. But he somehow seemed to like me as well or else he wouldn't have said that he would only go to the party if I'd go there, too.

But in no case my father was allowed to hear that I loved a boy, not until I would have told him it myself, when I'd have the brave therefor some day. Hopefully, I would have the brave to tell him some day, because I couldn't hide it forever from him and I didn't want that either. But I didn't want to imagine how my father would react if I'd tell him. Would he kill me? Hopefully not. But he surely wouldn't let me get away with it. He would try to persuade me that boys couldn't love boys, but I would tell him that that wasn't true and I was the living proof of it. My father could punish me for loving a boy, he could beat me or do whatever, but I still would love Bakura and no one could disabuse me from loving him. No one.

I'd never imagined that I ever would love a boy, but I'd also never imagined to meet somebody like Bakura. He was special. In a good way. I liked his nature and everything else of him as well. His long white spiky hair, his dark brown, nearly black eyes, his pale skin, his light rose lips I so wanted to press my lips against... I liked how he dressed and... yes, I just liked everything.

I really was looking forward to the party on Friday. Hopefully, this was my chance to getting closer to Bakura. Parties are good for doing that...

**Sorry that this chapter was much shorter than the other ones and that nothing really exciting has happened, but I needed to write this to get on with the story. The next chapter will (hopefully) be longer and (surely) be more exciting.**

**Please review anyway!!! I'm always happy if I get some reviews :)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8. Hope you like it. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 8**

**Bakura's P.O.V**

The three days passed by quickly and uneventful and suddenly it was Friday. I couldn't believe it. This night, I would go to the party at the Kaiba mansion with Malik! With Malik! With MALIK! I was so happy that he'd go there with me. Tonight would be the chance. The chance to get closer to him than I already was. The chance to admit how I felt about him. The chance to get to know how he thought about me, how he felt about me. The chance to leave the friends-level behind us and to reach lover-level.

But it could also be the chance to screw everything up. The chance to leave the friends-level behind us and to fall back to classmate-level. The chance that my dreams would be destroyed. The chance that he would reject me, that he wouldn't love me. The chance that he would never want to talk to me again, that he would hate me.

I sighed. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. If I wanted to find out if Malik liked me more than a friend or not, then I would have to risk everything and screw up my courage.

But somehow, I sensed that Malik DID like me more than a friend. At least a bit. I just felt it. How? I didn't know. Maybe, this was only a great dream of mine and I only imagined it that Malik had at least some feelings for me. But, like of many other things, I couldn't be sure of that and I would just have to wait until tonight until I'd get an answer to that. Of course only, if I'd be brave enough tonight to tell Malik how I felt.

I was sitting at my desk in the History classroom, Malik was sitting next to me. Class had already started, so I couldn't talk to him, but I could think about him at least. Every now and then, I darted a glance at him, and once or twice he looked at me at the same moment and our eyes locked. His lavender, his beautiful lavender eyes stared into my dark ones. My heart began to speed up and the tingling sensation went through my whole body, from the tip of my toes up to my head. I was all mixed up. I had the urge to strike his cheek, the urge to at least touch his bronzed skin. But I controlled myself.

The morning passed by and it was lunch time. I sat, as usual, at the table with Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Duke, Tea and Malik. And our only topic was tonight's party.

"So, when will the party start, Joey?", Yugi asked.

"Somewhere about eightish", Joey answered.

" Hey, will Seto be there, too?", Duke asked.

"Hopefully. He has a lot of work and stuff to get done, but I hope he can quit being a workaholic for at least one night... or a few hours", Joey muttered.

Malik leaned to the side where I sat. "Who's Seto?", Malik asked me low.

"Seto's Joey's boyfriend. Joey lives with him and Seto's little brother in the mansion, where the party is tonight", I explained him and he nodded.

"Who else will come?", Tea asked Joey.

"Uh...", Joey thought a moment, "I've told many people about the party... Mostly the ones that have the same classes with me."

"Such as?", Tristan asked.

"You can't demand that I know their names!", Joey said.

Tristan slapped with his hand against his forehead and shook his head, unbelieving. "You're hopeless...", he muttered.

"So, there'll be full house tonight", Malik observed.

"Yeah, and of course I've also invited some girls, so you won't be bored", Joey said grinning.

I clenched my fist under the table. Crap! This wasn't good. Girls weren't good. Malik should love me and not one of those girls. But... of course I couldn't and wouldn't force him into loving me. But girls would just make everything difficult. He HAD said that he was straight after all, although I wished he was not and I somehow felt he was not, but that was probably only because I hoped that so much. The girls would be my rivals then.

I sighed mentally and looked at Malik. He had blushed and wore a strange smile.

"T-thanks...", he mumbled and looked down to his feet as if they suddenly were really interesting.

A smile crossed my face. Malik didn't seem as if he would really care about the fact that girls would come to the party. Maybe... maybe he really wasn't straight, which I only could hope. That would be good for me. Maybe... (I had to hide a smile) Maybe I was the cause for him becoming gay. Well, if so, should I be proud of it? Or not? Bakura, known as the guy who made straight guys gay...

Lunch time was quickly over and as school was finally over as well, I met Malik at my locker. He waited there for me, leaning casually against the locker. I gasped slightly as I looked at him. So beautiful. Stunningly beautiful.

"Hey, Bakura", Malik smiled as I arrived. I smiled back, dazed. Every time I saw Malik, I just had to smile.

"When shall I come to you?", Malik asked.

I shook my head lightly to snap out of my daze. "Wha?", I asked.

He snickered. "I've asked you, when shall I come to you?", Malik repeated, "I don't know where the mansion is and you've said that you would fetch me at my home or I should come to your place before the party, 'cause you know the way to the mansion. And I've decided that it would be best if I'd come to you, so I don't have to explain you all the way to my place. You've said that we would go together to the mansion, remember?"

"Yeah. Uhm... You can come to me whenever you like", I told him. "Come when you're ready to go to the party."

Malik smiled an adorable smile. "Well, then what about seven?", he suggested.

I nodded. "That's okay."

"Okay, then I'll come to your place at seven", he said. "See you later!" Then, he walked off.

I stared after him and sighed.

It was merely a matter of time before I would tell him my feelings. Probably, it would be tonight...

**Malik's P.O.V**

I was walking home from school. And I was happy. Tonight would be the night I'd tell Bakura about my feelings. Finally. I couldn't hide them from him anymore. Every time I saw him, my feelings went haywire. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest and I began to sweat whenever I looked at him. I imagined what I could say to him, and when I should tell him. Before the party? During the party? Or after the party? When? And what should I say? Would I be brave enough to tell him at all? Should I tell him everything straight into his face or should I beat around the bush? Or should I just take his beautiful pale face into my hands and kiss him? On his mouth? Well, better no kissing at all before I know how he thought about me, because if he didn't love me and I would kiss him, how would he react? But what could I say, what could I say? Would a simple 'I love you, Bakura' be enough? I didn't think so.  
How about 'Bakura, I know you for two weeks now, and the first time I've seen you... It was love at first sight. I know this may be sounding cheesy and stuff, but it's just how it is. So... would you like to go with me?'  
But maybe this was a little too long. I sighed. What should I do? Why was it so difficult? I could just tell him that I loved him, but somehow I didn't want it to do it that way. I wanted to reason why I loved him. I thought I just wanted to do it that way, because I was afraid of getting rejected. After all, I didn't even know if Bakura was ready for a relationship. Certainly, he still thought about his ex-boyfriend. After he had left Bakura, would Bakura ever wanted to be in a relationship with anybody? Hopefully. And hopefully this 'anybody' would be me. Me, Malik Ishtar. The boy who had moved from Egypt to Japan. The new boy. The boy with long sand-colored hair and lavender eyes. The boy, who claimed that he was straight and then fell in love with a boy. With Bakura, the boy with long, white hair, that shimmered in the sunlight. The boy with dark brown eyes, that were so deep that you could get lost in them. The boy with this pale skin that made him look so beautiful.

I sighed as I saw his face in front of my eyes when I closed them. Every time I closed my eyes, Bakura was there. I saw him clearly. And I wished so badly that he loved me as much as I loved him...

I arrived at home. As we moved to Domino City, my father had bought this house. It was huge. Too huge for me. A swanky house. But my father had said that it matched the way an Ishtar had to live. I could only roll my eyes about that. I hated all the Ishtar traditions and rituals and rules and fuck knows what else.

So, I entered the house. Like every day, nobody was at home yet. My father and my siblings were still in the museum, working. And I didn't have a mother anymore, because she died giving me birth.

I went upstairs into my room and sat down at my desk. I rested my head on my hand and looked out of the window. Then, I imagined how tonight would be. Many people would come to the party at the mansion, but the only person I had in my mind was Bakura. How should I tell him about how I felt? I could only hope that he wouldn't reject me but love me, as much as I loved him. I imagined kissing him on his light pink lips and I asked myself if they were soft, his lips.

I sighed. Hopefully, my father would not find out about the fact that I loved a boy. Some day, I would of course have to tell him, but I think no matter when I would tell him about how I felt about Bakura, if I'd tell him in one week or ten years, he would still be angry and I didn't know what else he would be. I really didn't want to know it.

I sighed again.

"Malik?", somebody said.

I whirled around. Behind me stood my sister, Ishizu. She had a concerned expression on her face.

"Malik... Is everything alright?", she asked.

I nodded quickly. "Yeah, of course. Why do you think that it isn't?", I asked her.

"I've watched you for several minutes and you didn't notice me. You were lost in thoughts like many a time lately", Ishizu explained.

Now I became nervous. Had I acted differently lately? Did she know about what I thought? Couldn't be. She couldn't read minds after all. But... somehow, elder sisters have the talent to know and sense things. Hopefully, Ishizu couldn't do that.

She looked at me with a stern look in her blue eyes. I put on a smile.

"I'm okay, really. I... I just thought about something a lot, lately", I told her. The stern look in her eyes didn't disappear.

"And about what did you think?", she asked.

"Uh..." Shit! I should have known that she would ask that. "Uhm... about... school. Yeah, I've thought about school", I said, my voice a little shakily.

"About school?", she raised an eyebrow. "Do you have problems at Domino High? Is there anything I can do for you? Does somebody bully you? Or-"

"No, no", I interrupted her. "Everything's alright. Don't worry, sis."

I looked at her with a look that should convince her that I told the truth, but I didn't know if it worked.

She didn't look convinced, but she gave up.

"If you think that, Malik. But you know that I'll be there for you, if you need anything or if you have problems. Don't hesitate to ask me for help, brother", she told me.

"Yeah, of course. I know that I can come to you for help, Ishizu. And if I would need you, then I would already have come to you", I said. She nodded and went to the door.

Then I remembered that I hadn't told her or my father about the party yet.

"Uh.. Ishizu, wait!", I said and she stopped. Then, she turned around and furrowed her brow.

"Yes, Malik?", she said.

"Uhm... Tonight, there is a party... Do you think I can go there?", I asked her.

She 'hmm'ed and thought about it for a moment. "You should ask father. You know I can't decide that", she said. "Who throws the party?"

"Joey, a friend of mine", I told her. "The party is at the house he lives in." I didn't have to tell her that he lived there with his boyfriend and that almost all my other friends were gay as well, because Ishizu was already suspicious, she didn't have to become more suspicious and when I'd mention that my friends were gay she surely would assume that I was, too. It was true, of course, but there was a reason why she shouldn't know. She would tell it our father.

"Well, like I've said, I can't decide that, but if you wish then I could ask father", she offered.

"Yes, that would be nice, sis", I said. She nodded.

"Why are you at home already anyway?", I asked her as she was already in front of my door.

"There was nothing for me to do at the museum, so I decided to go home and look what my little brother does", she said, smiling. I rolled my eyes, but I smiled back. Ishizu was a good sister. She was always kind, but if anything was wrong with me she was also the first who noticed that something wasn't right. Sometimes that was a good thing, but in cases like the one I had at the moment it wasn't. I had to be careful with what I'd do and what I'd say to prevent that she'd become more suspicious than she already was. Though she certainly hadn't got a clue about the reason why I was lost in thought a lot lately.

Ishizu went out of my room and closed the door behind her. I sighed. At least she would ask father for me whether I could go to the party or not. Perhaps I should have asked him before I'd said Joey that I would come and before I had told Bakura that I would come to him before the party.

Now I only could hope, that my father would let me go or else I would have to steal away. But I was sure that if Ishizu would ask him, he would certainly say 'yes'. He always did when Ishizu asked him something.

I looked at the clock and sighed. It was only four o'clock. Still three hours before I would go to Bakura's place. Before I would see him again.

A quarter of an hour later, Ishizu came back into my room, smiling.

"I've asked father if you could go to the party and he allows it. He just said you shouldn't be too late at home", Ishizu told me.

"And that means?", I asked.

"Eleven", she answered.

I gaped my mouth. "What?!", I exclaimed.

"You should be happy that father allows you to go to the party at all. You know he isn't a friend of parties. Be happy that you're allowed to go there", my sister said.

"What?!", I repeated. "I'm sixteen years old! Why can't I stay longer at the party?"

"It's what father has said. You should respect his rules", she said.

I gritted my teeth. I hated to be an Ishtar. It made everything complicated. I had to respect the rules of the family and of my father, I had to do what the traditions demanded, I couldn't live my life exactly how I wanted to live it. That was just unfair!

"Why can't I come home later? Everyone else is allowed to stay longer at parties and I always have to go home before everyone else", I said.

"Well, you're simply not like everyone else", Ishizu told me. "You're a member of the Ishtar family. Our family exists since thousands of years and we already have changed many traditions and rules to make our life more comfortable, but one rule is the same since all those years. Obey your father. You shouldn't even think about question his decisions, Malik. You should know that by now."

Yeah. I knew that by now. Every time I'd questioned his decisions, he'd become angry and had punished me. Because I wasn't allowed to question anything my father did. That was what the rules said.

"So, when are you at home then, Malik?", Ishizu asked. I didn't like the tone of her voice. It was this almighty sister tone.

"At eleven", I mumbled, exasperated.

"Good", she said and left.

I sighed. Well, at least I could go to the party at all and didn't have to steal away, what would have brought me into a bunch of trouble.

I looked at the clock again. Half past four. Still two hours and a half. Somehow, I was excited and nervous. I should use the time that was left until I'd go to Bakura to think about how I'd tell him that I loved him.

I closed my eyes and saw the white-haired, pale skinned boy. And then I started to think...

**Okay, I've decided to write about the party in the next chapter, 'cause here was a good time to end this chapter.**

**Tell me what you think. Do you like how the story goes, or not? What do you think? Just tell me in a review and I'll be very happy. :D**

**So, don't forget to review!!! :)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 9**

**Malik's P.O.V**

I stood in front of the apartment building Bakura lived in. It was five minutes to seven, so I was on time. I sighed before I opened the door and stepped into the building. There was an elevator, I had used it the first time I'd come here, but today I decided to use the staircase, so I would have some more time to calm down.

I was very nervous. The two hours and a half had past quicker than I'd wished they had and as I had to hurry up with washing up and getting dressed, I'd become more and more nervous. I hadn't decided what I should do tonight. When I should tell Bakura my feelings.

Now, I was already on the way to his apartment, so I had to decide quickly. I couldn't concentrate while I was going up the stairs.

And suddenly, I was on the top story, in front of apartment 601 and hadn't made a decision. Well, maybe it was best if I'd tell him on the spur of the moment, when I would think the best moment to tell him was. Yes, that's how I'd do it.

I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. I heard someone converging to the door and then, the door was opened. And there in front of me stood Bakura and I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with his beauty. He wore a simple black shirt and tight jeans and everything combined with his paleness, his long white hair and his nearly black eyes looked great. I couldn't help but stare at him, somewhat dazed.

I heard him snicker slightly.

"Hi Malik", he said and I shook my head to snap out of my daze.

"H-Hi Bakura", I said and rubbed my head sheepishly. Well, that had been obvious now. Maybe he slowly got the hint what I thought about him.

"Come in, please", Bakura said and led me into his apartment. It looked like the last time I'd been here, what had been just six days ago. Six days, which had changed my life. Which had changed me. Which had made me realize things I hadn't realized before. Which had changed everything...

So I followed him into the living room.

"We still have time before we have to go to the party", Bakura explained. "You wanna something to drink?", he asked.

I nodded. "Just a glass of water please", I told him. Bakura smiled and disappeared in another room, certainly the kitchen.

I tried to slow my heart beat and looked around. The room looked like it had when I had been here six days ago. And... everything was like it had been when I was here for the first time. Seemed like his parents where, again, not here. That's odd. Maybe I'd ask him about that.

I continued to look around. And then, something small on a shelf caught my attention. I walked towards it. It was a glass statue of an angel. An angel that looked somehow similar to Bakura, 'cause it had the same long white hair and pale skin and stuff. Only that Bakura had no wings. I had to smile about the image I had in my head. Bakura with wings. In the dress of an angel. Well, at least he would be a sexy angel.

Slowly, I reached out to touch the angel that looked so similar to Bakura. So similar to the one I'd fallen in love with. My finger was just an inch away from the angel, as a harsh voice sounded from behind me.

"Don't touch him!"

I whirled around. Behind me stood Bakura. He looked angry. Was he angry because of me? Because I had wanted to touch the angel? I didn't know what to say. I hadn't meant to make him angry.

"I... I... Sorry", I mumbled, somehow confused. Why was he angry? I just wanted to touch the statue not to steal it or something.

Bakura's angry expression slowly disappeared and was replaced by a apologetic smile.

"It's okay. I... I just don't want anybody to touch the angel", he explained. "It just means a lot to me."

I nodded, understanding. Everybody has things he likes.

"Here", Bakura said and gave the glass of water to me.

"Thanks", I replied and smiled.

Bakura smiled back.

"So... what are we're going to do until we have to go to the party?", he asked. I shrugged and sipped at my water.

"What about...", he thought for a moment. "Listening to some music?"

"Okay", I agreed.

Bakura waved me to follow him into another room. So, with the glass of water in my hand, I followed him, past two closed doors into a bedroom. His bedroom. Small, but nice.

Bakura was already kneeling in front of a black stereo, putting a CD into it.

"Where can I put down my glass?", I asked him, because I didn't really want to hold it all the time.

"Just put it on the desk", Bakura answered, not turning away from the stereo. I nodded and looked around to see where the desk was. I found it and I put my glass down on it.

As I looked back to where Bakura was trying to turn the music on, I directly looked at his ass, raised 'cause he was standing and leaning forward by now.

I just stared, maybe I'd even drooled.

"Why can't I hear music? Is this thing broken or something?", I heard Bakura yelling at the stereo.

I shook my head to snap out of my gaze.

"Uhm... What's wrong?", I asked him.

Bakura sighed. "This damn thing doesn't let me hear a single frigging sound", he explained.

I went up to him and the stereo. "Let me see. Maybe I can see what's wrong", I said.

Bakura made a small step aside and I kneeled down next to him. He then kneeled down again besides me and I took a look at the stereo. Actually, I didn't know much about stereos and stuff like that, but I tried to help him nevertheless. So I pushed on every button I saw and sighed as I'd pushed them all and that damn stereo didn't make a peep.

I looked at Bakura and he looked at me. "We've tried everything. Well, then no music, I guess", I said to him. And suddenly, it was like I had a flash of genius. I reached my hand out to control if the plug was plugged in and apparently Bakura had the same idea. Our hands met each other, my bronzed one his pale white. Quickly, both of us pulled our hands back and we looked at each other. Bakura had blushed, and I certainly as well. A moment that seemed to last an eternity, we just stared at each other. My lavender eyes stared into his deep nearly black eyes. They really were deep. I could have get lost in them while looking at him. His eyes were almost hypnotizing. My heart beat speeded up once more this day.

And after we'd stared at each other for the half of an eternity, we both smiled.

"I...", Bakura stuttered. Yes? Would he say what I thought or hoped he would say? "I..." You. "I..." Yes, you. As far as that we'd been already. "I... The plug was just loose", he finally said.

I sighed mentally. That was not what I had hoped he would say, but okay. I nodded. "Yeah, the plug was loose", I muttered.

I plugged the plug in so that it wasn't loose anymore.

Bakura pushed the 'play' button and soon, music filled the room.

_Memories consume  
Like opening the wound  
I'm picking me apart again  
You all assume  
I'm safe here in my room  
Unless I try to start again_

"Linkin Park?", I asked as soon as I'd recognized it.

"Yeah. You know 'em?", he said.

"Of course", I replied and listened to the song.

_  
I don't want to be the one  
The battles always choose  
'Cause inside I realize  
That I'm the one confused_

_I don't know what's worth fighting for  
Or why I have to scream  
I don't know why I instigate  
And say what I don't mean  
I don't know how I got this way  
I know it's not alright  
So I'm breaking the habit  
I'm breaking the habit  
Tonight_

Yes... Tonight I would brake a habit. The habit of acting like a person I wasn't. The habit of saying nothing about my feelings to anyone. The habit of telling that I'm straight although I wasn't... well not anymore. No, I was in love with a guy and his name was Bakura and everyone should know it, some day at least. And I would break the habit of caring about what all the other people thought about me. I wouldn't care anymore. It didn't matter what they thought. I would do what I liked to do, what I thought was right. And I would break the rules. The rules of my father, the rules of my family. And I wouldn't care what my father would think about that, what my siblings would think about that. I wouldn't care. And all the other people on earth or wherever could think and talk about what they wanted, but I wouldn't care anymore. I only would care about what Bakura thought. Yes, but he was the only one... Only he. Bakura.

**Bakura's P.O.V**

We just sat there in front of the stereo and listened to some music. I sighed mentally. I had wanted to tell him that I loved him. I had screwed up all my courage and had looked him into his eyes to tell him what I felt. And as I'd looked into his lavender eyes, my courage had been gone all of a sudden and my worries had echoed through my head.

What if he didn't love me and I just misread everything, his actions, his expressions and stuff? I didn't want to make a fool of myself...

But I'd almost said the three words. Almost, but not complete. I was such a coward. Why hadn't I just said the simple three words?

I sighed mentally again and told myself to tell Malik that I loved him before this day would be past, meaning before midnight.

We listened to more songs, neither one of us saying a word. But it was not an uncomfortable silence, well, it wasn't even silent, because of the music, but you know what I mean. We didn't talk, instead we just looked at each other.

After a while, Malik opened his mouth slightly to say something.

"Uh...", he began. "Can I... Can I use your bathroom?", he asked and blushed slightly. I smirked. His blush was so beautiful. It reminded me of Ryou's blush.

I gasped and was startled as I caught myself thinking about him again. I had managed to not think about him for a while now, and now... I bit my lip.

"Bakura?", Malik asked, crouching in front of me and bringing me out of my thoughts. "You alright?"

"Huh?" I blinked. "Oh, yeah. I'm alright." He looked me deep into my eyes. "Just go to the bathroom", I told him.

Malik smiled at me and stood up, walking out of my room.

"Uhm... Bakura?", he asked.

"Yeah? What is it?", I asked, still sitting in front of the still playing stereo.

"Which door?", Malik asked. "The one on the right or-"

"NO! Not the right door! Don't open it!", I shouted and jumped up to my feet. Nobody should open the door on the right. It was the door to Ryou's room. Nobody was allowed to go in there. Not even me... but only because of all the painful memories that awaited me there.

Now I stood besides Malik, in front of the door on the right, my arms outstretched.

Malik looked at me with a strange expression and lifted his hands in an innocent gesture. "Okay, okay", he said. "I just wanna go to the bathroom..."

"This door then", I said and pointed to the door on the left. Malik nodded and disappeared in the bathroom. I sighed and slid down along the door of Ryou's former room. I drew up my knees and rested my chin on them.

Now, Malik certainly thought that I was crazy. But I couldn't have let him go into the room. If he'd see the room, he possibly would become suspicious, because in there were all of Ryou's things. I hadn't removed anything after his death, because I never even went into the room after Ryou's death. Too painful. And there surely were pictures of me and Ryou in there as much as I remembered. It would be obvious to Malik that this had been the room of my boyfriend, that had 'left' me. Malik would ask me why he hadn't taken anything with him as he had left me. And then I would have either have to think about a good excuse or I'd have to explain a lot. That Ryou hadn't left me, that he was dead, and when I would be on it I could also tell him that I didn't even have parents, that I lived here on my own.

No... the time was not right for that to happen. But, thankfully, he hadn't opened the door and actually I didn't even know why I thought about what could have happened, because it hadn't happened. I slowly stood up and took a deep breath, just as Malik came out of the bathroom.

I looked at the clock and forced a smile on my face. It was quarter to eight, finally time to go.

"Come on, Malik", I said. "We have to go or else we're too late to the party."

Malik nodded. Good thing, that he didn't question me about why I had acted so strangely five minutes ago, because if he'd asked me, I hadn't known what I should've said.

Quickly, I went into my room and turned the stereo off. I closed the door of my bedroom behind me and went into the living room where Malik waited for me.

"Ready?", I asked.

"Always", Malik said.

"Okay, then let's go", I said and we left my apartment. We took the elevator downwards. As Malik and I stood in the small elevator, I imagined what we would do, if the elevator would stop all of a sudden and we would be stuck. Like in a movie.

But before I really could imagine what we'd do then, we were already on the first floor. The elevator stopped and we left the building.

"You know the way, I hope", Malik said.

"Of course, or else I wouldn't have offered to show you the way", I answered.

To the mansion it was a long way. My apartment was on the outskirts and the Kaiba mansion on the other side of the town, after all. But with Malik the way seemed only half as long as it was. We talked about petty things. Music, TV shows, the weather, such things.

Finally, we reached the Kaiba mansion. I could hear music coming from the house. It seemed as if the party had already begun.

"Wow", Malik gaped. "What a big house..."

"That's the reason why we call it the 'mansion', smarty", I said. "Follow me, I know the way."

We went along the high fence until we reached the gate. I rang. Several moments later, a voice sounded through the speaker at the gate.

"Hello?" It was Joey.

"Hey, Joey. It's us, let us in", I said into the intercom.

"Who's us?", Joey asked.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Malik and Bakura", I told him.

"Oh, hi guys! Come in", Joey said and the gate opened. I waved Malik to follow me and we went through the garden up to the front entrance, where Joey was waiting.

"You're late", he said.

"Better late than never", Malik said and we walked past Joey into the mansion. The music was pretty loud and everywhere were people I did never have seen anywhere.

"Many people", Malik said.

"Yeah, but I think that are not all", I said. Malik looked at me with wide eyes. "Believe me, parties at the mansion are very popular. Nobody would miss a party here", I explained.

"So, Joey's very popular", Malik said.

I shook my head. "Nah, it's not Joey who's popular. It's his boyfriend. Seto Kaiba. The CEO of Kaiba Corporation", I told him.

"CEO?", Malik repeated unbelieving.

"Uh-huh."

"Wow."

"Inherited", I explained. "From his step-father who had died a few years ago."

"Oh", Malik said. I shrugged.

"Hey! Bakura! Malik!", somebody shouted. Definitely the voice of a tri-color haired, small boy. I turned round. Yep, I was right. Yugi and Tea came up to us. Great...

"Hi, Yugi", I said. "Hi, Tea."

"Hi", Tea said. "Do you enjoy the party?", she asked.

"We've just arrived", Malik explained. Tea and Yugi nodded.

"Oh, well", Tea said. "We were just looking for Tristan and Duke."

"Yeah", Yugi said, "Let's continue searching." Tea nodded and put her arm around the small boy's back.

"See you later", Yugi said cheerfully.

"Sure", I muttered.

"So, what are we doing now?", Malik asked.

"Let's help ourselves and get something to drink. I know where the refrigerator is", I grinned. Malik grinned as well and we barged our way through the crowd.

As we arrived in the kitchen that was also crowded, we quickly took two beers out of the refrigerator and searched for a not so crowded corner. While we were searching, going from one room to the next, suddenly a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. I turned round to see who had pulled me away from Malik. It was Tristan.

"Tristan, what's the point of that?", I asked, a bit annoyed.

He smirked. "I just want to present you to somebody", he explained.

"What?!", I called. "No, let me go."

"Come on", Tristan said, "It won't last long."

I looked around to see where Malik was, but I didn't see him anymore. Great. Will I find him ever again between all those people? Hopefully...

I sighed. Certainly, this was one of those actions, where your 'friends' tried to hook you up with somebody, because you didn't have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

But... when Tristan tried to hook me up with some guy, because he knew I was gay, what did whoever else, surely Duke, do with Malik? After all, Malik had said that he was straight and up to now I didn't know if he really was or if he wasn't, but I sensed that he had at least some feelings for me, and I didn't want to let these feelings get destroyed by some girl. I couldn't allow that.

Oh, why had I been such a coward at home? Well, that didn't matter now, because now I had to find Malik again before any girl could do... whatever with him. Parties were always a good place to do whatever, whatever that then was.

I tore myself away from Tristan's grip and run to find Malik. To find him quickly. Because at parties, everything went also a little faster than usually. You get to know somebody, skip the get friends part and the fall in love part, and suddenly you stand in the closet and kiss the person you just got to know. Yes, some things could go too fast. Hopefully, Malik wasn't one for skipping those parts, if our 'friends' really tried to hook him up with somebody. Because I wanted my chance to tell him about my feelings. And then he should either tell me that he loved me, too, or that he didn't love me. And only after that, he could be hooked up with whoever. But not until I got my chance.

I had to find him, but why the hell was this house so big? There were so many rooms, alone fifteen on the first floor. And this house had several stories. Who the hell needed so much rooms?

After fifteen minutes, I became slightly nervous. I didn't want to lose Malik, not before I had told him that I loved him.

//Malik, where the hell are you?//, I thought and continued searching for the bronzed Egyptian.

**Sorry, this chapter ends here. But the next chapter will come soon. I just have to write it...**

**Well, I just wanted to tell you some things:  
****If you wonder why I chose 'Breaking the habit' as a song, because it has actually nothing to do with the story and stuff, well... I simply thought I should choose a song by Linkin Park, because I heard their songs while writing this chapter and this was the only song I knew where at least one sentence of the lyrics referred to my chapter. Or maybe the song has nothing at all to do with the chapter, but I think it doesn't matter, does it? Well, never mind. **

**Btw, I don't own the song 'Breaking the habit'. It belongs to Linkin Park. :)**

**Oh, and if you're confused why Bakura said "Don't touch him." instead of "Don't touch it.**"** as Malik was about to touch the glass-angel, that is because he thinks of the angel as Ryou, or something like that... Maybe this has confused you only more... Well, never mind. I'm just a bit talkative today. **

**So, like I tell you at the end of every chapter: Don't forget to review!!! :D**

**Because I'm always very happy if I get many reviews.**

**(And if you have nothing else to do then you could take a look at my profile. Just a proposal :))**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	10. Chapter 10

**So, here's the next chapter. I hope you like it. :)**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! (If I would there would definitely be Yaoi) :)**

**Chapter 10**

**Malik's P.O.V**

Bakura and I were searching for a not so crowded spot, as suddenly a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side, away from Bakura.

"What the fuck...", I muttered and turned around to see who had pulled me away. It was Duke.

"Duke", I said and furrowed my brow. "What's the point of that?", I asked him.

Duke grinned. "I just wanna present you to somebody."

I gulped. "Present me to _somebody_?", I repeated. No... I knew exactly what he wanted to do.

"Yeah, just presenting you to someone", he said, smirking. This was so the total opposite of good. "Come on", Duke said, seized me by the arm and pulled me through the room.

I looked around to see where Bakura was, but I didn't see him anymore. Damn! Where was he when you needed him? Had he vanished into thin air? I sighed.

"Come along, Malik. It won't take long", Duke said, a fake innocent expression on his face while he pulled me into the direction of a staircase. And now I knew again, why I used to hate parties in Egypt whenever I didn't have a girlfriend. Because my 'friends' then had done everything to pair me up with any girl they thought would be to my liking. Seemed like it was the same here in Japan.

But now, I didn't have to be paired up with somebody, because I actually HAD somebody. Bakura. Sure, I hadn't told him yet that I loved him and the others, meaning Yugi, Tea, Joey, Tristan and Duke, thought I was straight so the idea that I could love Bakura, who was a boy the last time I'd checked, would probably never cross their minds and so they thought that I had to be paired up with somebody and they didn't even care to ask me if I wanted to be paired up with somebody and... Argh. Why did friends always have to act so... friendly? They did as if they acted in my best interests, but they didn't even care if I liked to be paired up with somebody or not.

By now, Duke had pulled me already to the staircase. I groaned. Should I tell him that I realized a short while ago that I wasn't straight? But I had decided that I wouldn't tell anybody until I'd have confessed Bakura that I loved him, so I stuck with my decision. Maybe I could escape when he would have presented me to whoever he wanted me present to. Hopefully, as soon as I would have managed to escape I would find Bakura again in this big house that seemed to have millions of rooms and hallways.

Duke led me to a room. A bedroom. Uh-oh. I knew exactly what could happen at parties. I knew it only too well. But I wouldn't let that happen. I loved Bakura, for Ra's sake! And because of that I couldn't let anything happen. I would just say my name and stuff to whoever Duke wanted to present me to and then I'd abscond. Certainly, Bakura wondered by now where I was.

So I stepped into the room and looked around. Nobody was there.

"Duke...", I mumbled and stepped further into the room.

"Hmm, wait a minute and I'll be right back. Just sit down on the bed and relax. Remember, I just wanna present you to somebody", Duke grinned and with a twinkle in his eye, he disappeared outside of the door.

"Yeah, sure", I muttered to myself. Now I had the chance to run away, but then Duke would have followed me the whole night, not willing to give up the plans he'd made.

So it was probably better to get over with this fast and hopefully Bakura wouldn't be mad at me for my sudden disappearing.

I sighed and sat down on the bed. At least it was comfortable.

I sighed again. Yeah, sure. Duke would just 'present' me to somebody. Above all, in a bedroom with a huge comfortable bed and stuff like that. I huffed. Did he and Yugi and the others weigh me up as someone like that? As someone that would just get to know somebody and then would hop into bed with that somebody immediately? Just great...

Whatever. I sat there, looking at my knees, and waited, and suddenly, the door was opened. I looked up and saw a tall woman standing in the doorframe. She had long blonde hair and violet eyes and... she was beautiful. I gasped and my mouth opened slightly. She walked towards me, slowly and gracefully. A smile played on her perfect, red lips. I just stared at her, not really noticing what exactly I did at the moment. She approximated. She looked at me with her deep, violet eyes. My mouth hung open and I breathed fitfully.

And suddenly I realized what I was doing. My eyes widened for a brief moment and I shook my head slightly to snap out of my stare. No... What was I doing? I couldn't... Bakura... But... I furrowed my brow and bit on my lower lip. No, I couldn't let me get seduced. I loved Bakura, remember? Yeah, Bakura... God, but that woman was really hot, too. No! I shouldn't think that. I just had admitted to myself that I was gay. And what did I do now? I stared at a woman and my feelings went crazy. That wasn't how it was supposed to be, was it? Maybe I was bi...

I shook my head again. Bakura was hot. Hotter than this woman. Much hotter. Only because he wasn't here at the moment I couldn't forget him. I closed my eyes to see his face. Yes, there he was. I saw him clearly in front of my closed eyes. His white hair surrounded his handsome face. I saw his deep brown eyes.

"Hi. I'm Mai. Mai Valentine." The woman's voice suddenly brought me out of my thoughts. I still sat on the bed and she was standing right in front of me.

"H-Hi", I stuttered, my voice somewhat higher than usually.

"And your name is?", she asked and came closer to me. I hold my breath.

"M-Malik", I stammered. God, what was wrong with me?

"Malik, then", she said and sat down next to me on the bed. I gasped and flinched. Mai smiled. And Ra, it was a sexy smile. A smile that should seduce me. She ran with her tongue over her teeth. I looked at her, my mouth still open. What should I do? I lowered my head. Oh, not a good idea. Now I looked directly into her low neckline. Quickly, I closed my eyes and bit my lower lip.

"Ma-lik", she said and stretched my name. "What a sexy name", she continued and moved closer to me. I breathed more fitfully than before. I began to sweat.

//Shit... What shall I do?//, I asked myself, but nothing came to my mind. I was like paralyzed. I couldn't stand up or move an inch away. I just let my eyes closed. Probably that was best.

"And what a muscular body", Mai said. Now, I blushed as well.

I felt how her index finger stroke over my chest and over my stomach. I trembled as the finger went down further, but it stopped before it would reach the... well, the 'precious zone'. Thankfully. The finger stroke over my chest again and I still just sat there, paralyzed because of this woman.

This was so wrong. This wasn't what I wanted. But I couldn't go away, go to the person I wanted to be with at the moment. I was stunned.

I dared to open my eyes again and realized that Mai was opening my shirt. My eyes widened. That's it! My paralyzation was gone all of a sudden and I jumped to my feet, backing off from that woman that confused my feelings and myself. She stood up as well. Only now I recognized that she was taller than me.

"What?", she asked with an innocent tone. I still trembled and backed off. Mai walked towards me. She snickered softly. "Are you afraid?", she asked, a somehow devilish grin on her face. I didn't answer. I had to go away.

I continued to back off and suddenly I couldn't go further. I stood in a corner. Damn it!

Mai approximated. Where should I go? I had no chance to back off or to go past her. I was trapped.

"Oh, sexy ass is trapped", she giggled.

//Haha, very funny//, I thought. //I have to get out of here before anything bad will happen...//

What, if Bakura would catch me with her, kissing, making out or worse? Then, he surely wouldn't believe me if I'd tell him that I loved him. Everything would be ruined then.

Mai stood directly in front of me. I could feel her warm breath against my face. It smelled like alcohol but also like strawberries. It befuddled me. I couldn't think clear anymore. I tried to breath through my mouth.

She bend forward and our noses where merely inches apart from each other. She had put her hands on my shoulders and pulled me slightly forward towards her. I trembled badly. And I sweated. I didn't know what I should do. My heart beat nervous against my chest.

Her lips came closer and closer to mine. One inch maybe was between them, not more.

//NO!//, I screamed mentally.

No, I couldn't let this happen...

**Bakura's P.O.V**

I ran through the whole first story of the mansion, searching for the bronzed Egyptian who I loved. Where could he be? Would I find him in time before anything bad could happen?

Now I stood at the foot of the staircase, holding my side because I had a stitch. I really was out of breath, but I had no time to stop now. So I continued to ran, up the stairs and I was on the second story. Another fifteen rooms where Malik could be in.

I ran to every door, opened it, looked into the room for a split second and if Malik wasn't in the room, I closed the door and continued to run to the next door. Almost every room I looked into was a bedroom. And in almost every room where people. In beds... Together... Wonder what they were doing... Some didn't even look up as I looked into the room.

I ran and ran and ran and suddenly, I already stood in front of the last door on this story. Hopefully, Malik would be in this room. And hopefully I wasn't too late.

I opened the door and looked into the room. And then I saw him. He stood in a corner, in front of him a tall, blonde woman. Her face was only inches away from his. Did they kiss?

My eyes widened. Was I too late?

I saw Malik's expression. He was desperate. Obviously he didn't like what happened.

Good for me. I would rescue him.

So I ran further into the room, towards Malik and the woman that molested him.

"Malik!", I called and he looked into my direction, his eyes shimmering with fear, worry, confusion, hope, and many other feelings.

I shoved the woman away and grabbed his wrist.

"Get out of my way, slut!", I yelled at her. She was quite surprised. And confused. But that wasn't my problem. I tugged him out of the room and through the hallway to the next staircase. The blonde woman chased after us.

"Are you alright?", I asked Malik and looked at him.

He nodded. "Yeah...", he muttered.

I narrowed my eyes. //Tristan... Duke... you'll have to pay for that... some day//, I thought.

Malik and I ran up the staircase and then we were on the third story. The woman didn't follow us anymore, so we slowed our pace and slumped to the ground as soon as we were a few feet away from the staircase.

I was out of breath, so first of all I took a deep breath. I smiled slightly. //Maybe I'm a hero now//, I thought.

I watched Malik. He looked down and his sand-colored bangs covered his eyes.

"Well, I... I hope I have done the right thing", I said to him and he looked up at me. "It seemed to me as if you didn't like that woman, so I thought I should... rescue you", I told him.

A small smile came up to his face. "Yeah. That was a good idea. Thanks", he said.

"No problem", I said.

For a moment, there was silence. We looked at each other. We looked each other deep in the eyes. My dark eyes stared into his lavender ones. His beautiful lavender eyes...

And suddenly, his eyes were only inches away from mine. I had moved closer to him, really close. His eyes were wide, full of expectation.

"Bakura...?", he whispered.

I took his hand into mine. "Malik..."

"...", he opened his mouth slightly, but didn't say anything.

"I...", I began.

"Yes?"

"I...", I tried again to form the words.

"Is the plug loose again?", Malik whispered.

"What?", I asked confused.

"Nothing", he whispered and suddenly, he pushed my head closer to his and our lips met.

It was a befuddling feeling. I kissed back and closed my eyes. Malik pushed me even closer to him and I put my arms around his neck.

And we sat there on the floor, kissing, and it was like the time stood still. I couldn't hear the music from down on the first floor anymore, I couldn't hear anything anymore, I couldn't see anything anymore (maybe because I had closed my eyes) and I could only feel Malik. His lips pressed against mine and suddenly, I felt complete again.

After such a long time where I'd felt alone and incomplete, like a part of me was gone with Ryou, I now felt complete again.

//Ryou//, I thought as I remembered him, //Forgive me, please...//

The part of me that had gone, was back again. My heart that had been ripped apart about one month ago was finally put together again. All pieces of it were back where they belonged.

We broke apart to breathe, but as soon as that was done, our lips were together again. I felt Malik's tongue running over my lower lip, asking for entrance. I opened my mouth, allowing him to come in. His tongue discovered my mouth, carefully. I moaned.

After what seemed like an eternity (not that I didn't like it), he drew his tongue out of my mouth. Now, I pushed my tongue into his mouth, not waiting to ask for entrance. I discovered every angle of his mouth. He tasted so sweet. Like honey. Our tongues met and our saliva mingled. Malik moaned.  
I smiled and drew my tongue out of his mouth. We continued kissing. My head screamed for air, but I didn't want to stop. Finally, I had achieved what I had planned, wished and feared so long.

I opened my eyes to look at Malik. His eyes were still closed. As my vision blurred, I finally broke the kiss. I felt a bit dizzy.

We both panted. Malik looked at me, a overjoyed smile on his tanned face.

"What I wanted to say was", I said as soon as the dizziness was gone and I could think clear again, "I love you."

"I love you, too", Malik whispered.

I was so happy. My heart jumped up and down with joy. How long had I feared this moment? How could I even have thought that Malik didn't love me? It seemed as if we belonged with each other.

I stroke the bangs out of his face. "Now, do you wanna go back down to the party?", I asked him.

He nodded. "I'd love to."

I took his hand and we carefully stood up, both still a little bit dizzy. Then, we went down the stairs, back to where the music came from, that I now could hear again.

And Malik's hand felt so well in my hand, as if it just belonged there, as if his hand was made to be in my hand...

**Yay! Finally, Bakura and Malik kissed each other. I know you all waited for this to happen.**

**So, how was the make-out scene? This was the first time I wrote a make-out scene, so please tell me how it was. You can give me some tips, if you want to. Just send me a PM or an email or a review.**

**And if you're totally confused about these sentences: **

"I...", I tried again to form the words.

"Is the plug loose again?", Malik whispered.

"What?", I asked confused.

**then you should remember what happened in the last chapter, because there was this scene where Malik and Bakura sat in front of the stereo and Bakura tried to form the words 'I love you' and he only kept saying 'I...'. And then he said 'The plug was just loose' while Malik waited for him to say the three certain words.  
****I just thought that I should let Malik ask if the plug was loose again, so that the scene with the stereo wasn't needless.**

**By the way, Mai didn't kiss Malik because (thankfully) Bakura got there just in time before that could happen. Did I make Mai a slut? Oh, well... Hope you don't mind. **

**Well, the next chapter will be about how the party goes on and what happens after the party.**

**And please write me some reviews, because if I just get one I'm always disappointed and think that you didn't like the chapter...**

**Btw, anonymous reviews are enabled, so there is no reason for not writing me a review.**

**So, please send me one!!!**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks for your reviews! I was really happy that I got some! Yay! So, here's chapter 11, hope you like it :D**

**Disclaimer: And I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 11**

**Malik's P.O.V**

My head and my lungs screamed for air, but we continued kissing. And after what seemed like an eternity, Bakura broke the kiss.

We both panted. My head was spinning and it took me a moment to think clear. The only thing I did, was smiling. I just smiled. An overjoyed, cheerful smile, because I was so happy. Happy, that I'd finally had the guts to tell him (even though physical, not verbal) how I thought about him, what I felt. I had been really relieved as he'd kissed back. I had been so worried before, that he would reject me and stuff, and now I was more than only happy. There was no real word for how I felt right now. It had felt so right as we'd kissed... so right. Like I wasn't complete before that moment and then suddenly, I was. Like I had found my other half. Like I had found my... soul-mate.

"What I wanted to say was", Bakura said after a while, "I love you."

"I love you, too", I whispered.

He grinned and leaned forward to me, gently striking the bangs out of my face. "Now, do you wanna go back to the party?", he asked me.

I nodded. "I'd love to."

He took my hand and we stood up carefully, both still a little bit dizzy. Then, we went down the stairs, back to where the music came from. The whole way down the stairs, I only looked at Bakura. He smiled; it seemed as if he was happy and relieved, too. His white mane surrounded his pale face. He really looked like the angel he had on the shelf in his living room.

I couldn't believe that he'd said that he loved me. How could a person like him love me? I mean, he could get anyone he would want, but he loved me. Me. Malik. Just Malik, nothing more. Nothing special, except for being an immigrant and having tanned skin. But that was all. And yet he loved me...

We reached the foot of the staircase and were surrounded by quite a few people. Bakura had been right as we'd arrived at the mansion and he'd said that there would more people come. I hadn't believe at that time that really so much more people would come to the party, but now I could believe it. There was hardly any space to walk through the room and Bakura and I had to shove some people away, what actually was easier said than done. But we managed it and finally, we stood in a "quiet" corner (well, if you could call it quiet with all the noise the people made and then the music as well).

For a while, I watched the people dancing, talking and doing other stuff. Then I noticed that Bakura stared at me, a strange look in his eyes.

"What?", I asked cautiously.

He smiled an angelic smile. "I just wanna watch the most beautiful person in the whole mansion", he said.

Beautiful? ME? I felt how I blushed. Bakura snickered and took my chin into his hand. He then pulled me closer to him and kissed me. Only briefly, but it was enough to make me feel dizzy again.

He stroke with his hand over my cheek. "Stay where you are. I'll just bring us something to drink", he explained and looked me deep into the eyes. Dark brown met lavender.

I nodded, somewhat dazed, and my angel disappeared in the crowd, a smile on his face.

//That was kiss number two//, I thought happily and leaned against the wall behind me. I stared up at the ceiling that was high above me and thought.

This was the best night I ever had so far in my life. I'd had enough courage to show the boy I'd fallen in love with what I felt and he actually had the same feelings for me! What more could I want? Now, I was over with the worst. I had overcome the fear of getting rejected and I'd had my first kiss with a boy - the operative words are with a boy, 'cause I'd had my real first kiss with a girl - and everything was easier as I'd thought.

Suddenly, someone pushed me roughly against wall and brought me out of my thoughts. My eyes snapped open and I felt a fist colliding with my jaw.

**Bakura's P.O.V**

I pushed my way through the crowd and into the kitchen. I didn't even know, where I've put my beer from earlier. It must have gone lost while I'd searched Malik.

In the kitchen, I opened the refrigerator and wondered, how Joey or Kaiba or whoever managed to keep it filled with all those people in the mansion, but surely there were some of the servants somewhere nearby. So I grabbed two beer bottles and closed the refrigerator. Then I went back to where I'd left Malik. But on my way, I came across Yugi (oh, joy), who had an excited expression on his face.

"Bakura", he said, "Did you and Malik just...?" He trailed off, grinning broadly.

I groaned mentally. Did this tiny little guy have to have his eyes and ears everywhere? Wasn't he supposed to look at Tea or dance with her or something and not to watch other people doing what they were doing? Speaking of her... where was she?

Talk to the devil and he is bound to appear. And so was Tea. She walked around the corner and came to Yugi and me.

"Bakura, is it true? You and Malik-", she began, but I interrupted her.

"Yes! It's true for Ra's sake! Now, would you _please _let me be and monitor other people? There are enough here", I growled.

It didn't bother me that other people knew about me and Malik. But it did bother me when people watched me doing something and then asked questions about obvious things. I mean, what could you misunderstand if two boys kissed each other?

I walked past them, cursing under my breath, and went through the crowd, trying to get back to Malik. And as I'd finally reached the corner where I'd left him, my eyes widened.

It took me a split second to realize what was going on.

There were four persons. Malik and in front of him Duke, Tristan and Slut. The moment I saw them, I fell into a rage. And then I saw what they did.

Duke had collared Malik, who looked anything but well. His nose was bleeding and he looked as if he would black out any moment. He didn't even struggle against Duke's grip.

I clenched my fists and reacted finally. I seized Duke at his shoulder and turned him roughly round. As I'd faced him, I thrust my fist into his face. Immediately he let go off Malik and clutched his nose. Malik fell on his knees. What had they done?!

I crouched down to help Malik as somebody (it was Tristan) pushed me and I fell backwards and on my ass.

"What the fuck...?!", I yelled and jumped to my feet. "What's the point of that?!" I pointed to Malik, who kneeled on the ground, clutching his bleeding nose.

"He insulted Mai", Tristan pointed to the slut, "and he has to pay for that!", he yelled.

"What?!", I exclaimed. "Insulting the slut?!"

Tristan shoved me and I stumbled backwards, but I regained balance quickly enough and didn't fall. "Don't ever call her that again or else you'll lie three meters under earth's surface", Tristan threatened.

"Boo! Now I'm really scared", I said sarcastically and seized Tristan by the collar. "Now tell me your reason for beating him!", I growled.

"I told you already!", Tristan shouted. "He insulted her!"

"Tsk... You mean he insulted her because of not screwing her", I translated.

Tristan tore himself away from my grip and was about to beat me, as somebody stopped him by grabbing his arm. We all looked to the side. And who did we see?

"Kaiba", Duke said, still clutching his nose.

"Yeah, in person and now you stop fighting or you get the hell out of my mansion", Kaiba explained calmly.

Tristan glared at me and I glared back. Then he, Duke and the slut (who had only watched the whole time) disappeared in the crowd. I darted a quick glance at Kaiba, who already went away, and then, I kneeled down beside Malik.

"Malik!", I said and put my hand on his shoulder.

He mumbled something I couldn't understand.

"Malik! Look at me! What happened?", I asked, though it was obvious what had happened. Duke, Tristan and the slut must have attacked him, because of what had happened earlier. Because Malik hadn't done what the slut had wanted to do. Because I had rescued him. But why couldn't they beat me instead of him then?

"Malik, come on", I said and put his chin into my hand to force him to look at me. He looked at me with half opened eyes, holding a hand in front of his bleeding nose. He looked weak. Really weak.

"Fuck! I'll kill them", I muttered angrily and pulled him closer to me.

"Bakura...", Malik mumbled, scarcely audible because of the loud music.

"Yes?", I said. He put his hand into mine and rested his head against my chest. Then, he closed his eyes and mumbled something.

I didn't know what I should do. Should I take him to the hospital or home? But I didn't even know where he lived. Somewhat desperate I looked at him.

//First of all, I have to get out of here, or else I'll come across one of those bastards and someone will be killed//, I thought and heaved Malik into my arms. Then I stood up carefully and walked through the crowd and out of the mansion and into the darkness of the night, carrying my love in my arms, what would have been romantic if he wouldn't be in such a condition.

As I stood outside in front of the gate, I thought //And what now?//

Malik was unconscious. I didn't know where he lived. What should I do? I sighed and decided to take him to my apartment. Sure, it was a long way from here to my apartment, but it was a longer way from here to the next hospital. And I had to walk after all.

While I was walking I looked at Malik. His nose had stopped bleeding by now, thankfully. But he was still unconscious or maybe just too weak to speak or open his eyes. I didn't know.

As I walked Malik's hair swayed back and forth with every step I did. But other than that, he did nothing.

This reminded me of something. Something terrible I wished I could forget.

_*flashback*_

_Quickly, I grabbed his arm and pulled him up to the surface. He was unconscious. He didn't move. What should I do? _

_I pulled him to the waterside and positioned him, so that he lay on his back. I tried to feel his pulse, but to my horror, I couldn't find one. _

"_No, no, no...", I muttered. "C'mon, Ryou... Breathe!"_

_I did everything I knew of first aid, but Ryou did neither begin to breathe nor did he show any sign of life. He just lay there... _

Suddenly, I had the same feeling as I'd had back then. I stopped walking for a moment and looked at Malik. I got slightly panicked. Did he breathe? In the darkness, I couldn't see if his chest rose and fell, so I put my hand in front of nose. I could feel my heart beating heavily against my chest. Did he breathe?

I sighed with relief as I felt his breath against my hand. Thank Ra!

I continued walking and finally, after not less than three-quarters of an hour, I reached my apartment building and took the elevator up to my apartment, still carrying Malik in my arms. He hadn't said anything on the whole way, what was very scary. Hopefully, he would regain consciousness soon.

After I'd managed to get the key for my apartment out of my pocket without dropping Malik, I unlocked the door and walked in my apartment. Immediately, I went into my bedroom and lay Malik down onto my bed. I stroke the bangs out of his face and kissed him on his forehead, before I, exhausted, went into the living room and slumped down on the couch.

**Malik's P.O.V**

I felt that somebody carried me, but I was too weak to open my eyes and look who carried me. What had happened? I tried to remember...

_*flashback*_

_My eyes snapped open and I felt a fist colliding with my jaw. Taken off-guard, I screamed. In front of me stood Duke._

_//What the hell...//, I thought. //What was that fo-//_

_My thoughts were interrupted by another punch, this time into my stomach. I sank to the ground, panting._

"_What did I deserve that for?", I said through pants._

"_For insulting Mai", that was Tristan's voice. I looked up and saw him and Mai standing behind Duke._

"_Insulting her?!" Certainly, I'd heard wrongly. _

"_Yeah", Duke said. "How can you dare to reject her?"_

"_What?!", I exclaimed, slowly struggling on my feet again. "I can do what I want and first of all I didn't even wanna meet her!"_

"_Sure...", Tristan scoffed._

"_Yes!", I told him._

"_Whatever. You've hurt her feelings and you have to pay therefore", Duke said._

_This could not be happening! I'd HURT her feelings?! I'd hurt her feelings my ass! She wanted to seduce me and I didn't even want that! And besides, I hadn't done anything at all. I'd just run away with the help of Bakura, who had thankfully rescued me. _

_And even if I would have rejected her and would have hurt her feelings, it wouldn't be a reason to beat me. And I'd thought Duke and Tristan were my friends..._

_They continued to punch me and I couldn't even fight back. Everything happened so fast. My nose bled and I clutched it. My vision blurred. Slowly, I felt the darkness come and embrace me._

_Somebody collared me, but then, suddenly, I fell down on my knees. I tried to stay conscious, but it was easier said than done._

"_What the fuck...?", the most beautiful voice I'd ever heard said. It was Bakura's voice, of course. _

_I didn't know what was going on. I only struggled to stay conscious. _

_After a while, somebody kneeled down beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. _

"_Malik." It was Bakura. But I was too weak to look up._

"_Malik! Look at me! What happened?" I couldn't answer. _

"_Malik, come on", he said and put my chin into his hand, forcing me to look up. My vision was blurred and I couldn't see anything and I felt my consciousness draining away._

"_Fuck! I'll kill them!", Bakura said._

"_Bakura...", I mumbled. But what should I say?_

"_Yes?", he said. _

_The darkness embraced me more and more. I closed my eyes. "I love you", I mumbled, but certainly, he couldn't hear it. And then, everything turned black._

And now I was here. In somebody's arms. Too weak to do anything. My whole body hurt and I felt dizzy. Really dizzy.

I wondered where the person that carried me would take me and who that person was. I hoped it was Bakura, my angel.

Every now and then, the darkness came again and I lost consciousness, but regained it shortly afterwards again. Suddenly, as I just regained consciousness again, I was carefully laid down on... a bed. It was comfortable.

Somebody stroke my bangs out of my face and kissed me on my forehead. Now I knew it was Bakura, because only his lips were that soft. Soon, I fell asleep...

**So, that was unexpected, wasn't it? And in the next chapters there'll be more unexpected things. **

**And finally, Seto appeared. Just a short appearance, but better that than not appearing at all. **

**And I know that the scene when Malik gets punched probably doesn't make that much sense, but okay. I just had to write it.**

**Well, please review! I wanna hear what you think!!! :)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks for your reviews. :)**

**Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Yu-Gi-Oh! I think you know that by now. And certainly, I won't own Yu-Gi-Oh! in the following chapter of this story.**

**Chapter 12**

**Malik's P.O.V**

I slept fitful that night. My head and the other parts of my body hurt whenever I moved.

And I had a strange dream. Somebody carried me. Gently and carefully. I didn't know who it was that carried me or where that somebody carried me. And then suddenly, I lay on a bed and somebody kissed me.

I awoke in the middle of the night and was slightly confused. But I was too tired to think clearly and I was surrounded by darkness that prevented me from seeing anything, so I turned around so that I lay on my stomach and buried my face in the pillow. I was nearly asleep again, as I smelled a scent I knew. I sniffled again at the pillow. It smelled like...

Bakura?!

And then I remembered what had happened at the party and what must have happened after I'd been beaten up (I couldn't be sure of what exactly had happened, 'cause I was out a good while, but I had a slight idea).

Quickly, I sat up in the bed, what caused my head to hurt badly and made me wish to lie down again, but I ignored the headache and looked around in the darkness, trying to see something. As my eyes got used to the darkness, I noticed that this was Bakura's bedroom where I'd been with him before we'd gone to the party. So, I'd been right about the slight idea I had about what had happened after I lost consciousness.

Obviously, my dream hadn't been a dream. It had been real. Bakura must have carried me to his apartment after I'd got beaten up by Tristan and Duke and had lost consciousness. But where was he now?

I searched the room for Bakura, but didn't see him. So he wasn't in the bedroom.

I sighed and stood up, not really that tired anymore. My head was spinning and hurt, like the rest of my body, but I decided to simply ignore it all. I stepped to the window next to the bed and parted the curtains. I looked out into the darkness of the night. The moon was pale and his light shined only weakly. A few stars were dotted on the black sky. Outside, everything was peaceful. There were barely cars on the street and the whole town was dark, only some street lamps here and there, but other than that there was no light. Certainly, almost all people of the town slept at that time.

What time was it anyway? I looked around in the dark room, searching for an alarm clock or something that would show me the time. But I couldn't find a clock.

Slowly, I walked to the door and opened it quietly, trying to not make a sound. I expected to hear the sound of bare feet on laminate floor, but the sound didn't come. I looked down at my feet. Only then I saw that I wore the shoes and the other clothes I'd worn at the party.

I continued to walk to the living room, because I knew that there was definitely a clock. Standing behind the couch, I saw the clock and it told me that it was-

"Three in the morning?!", I gasped. Oh, shit! Now I was in big trouble. I was supposed to be at home at eleven... yesterday. Dad would kill me! "Fuck", I hissed to myself.

Suddenly, I heard a groaning and a faint snoring. I looked down at the couch. There lay a pale boy with white long hair. Bakura. He slept and looked so... peaceful and innocent and defenseless and vulnerable. Thoughts came into my mind. Certain thoughts. What I could do with him while he was so defenseless and asleep...

I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. Then, I went around the couch and kneeled down besides the sleeping form of my boyfriend. His lips were slightly parted. I stroke over them with my index finger, carefully not to wake him up.

"Uhh...", he groaned low, still asleep and rolled over, so that his angelic face was pressed against the back of the couch. I smiled and stood up, still looking at the boy I loved and who loved me as well. I still couldn't believe it. Maybe everything - the party, the kiss, the beating - was only a dream and I would wake up any moment. Hopefully, it wasn't only a dream. Besides, everything - the kiss and the headache - was much too real to be a dream. I sighed, turned around and walked back to the bedroom where I'd woken up in.

It was in the middle of the night and I was already too late after all, so some more hours before I'd be back at home wouldn't kill me more than my current lateness would.

On my way to the bedroom, I walked past the bathroom and a door to another room. The door Bakura hadn't want me to go in before we'd gone to the party. I hadn't even wanted to go in there, I'd just wanted to use his bathroom. Bakura had stood with outstretched arms in front of the door. At that moment, I'd thought he was gone crazy. But I wondered what the secret of this room was.

I caught myself grabbing the doorhandle, about to open the door to look what was with this room. But I stopped. Should I do this? Should I really do this? Definitely, it wasn't right. Eventually, Bakura had wished that I won't go in there. But I was curious. I just had to go in there. He hid something and that was for sure.

But was I allowed to get to know what he hid?

I looked at the door, reflecting. Sure, it wasn't right to go in there. I knew that. But... What the eye does not, see the heart does not grieve over, right? And Bakura was still asleep. He wouldn't get to know what I'd have done. Just a quick look into this room and I would go back into the bedroom.

I took a deep breath and carefully, I opened the door. I hesitated before I stepped into the room. Yes, this somehow was like betraying him or something like that, but I had to know what was in there.

I looked around in the darkness, searching for a light switch. I found it and switched on the light.

The lightness hurt in my eyes and I had to blink several times before I could see something.

I stood in a bedroom. A simple bedroom. What was so special about it? I didn't know...

I stepped into the middle of the room and looked around in the hope of finding out why Bakura hadn't want that I'd go in there.

The room was tidy, everything was on its place. The books in a shelf, the blanket on the bed...

Suddenly, something caught my attention. It was a poster, no, a collage. A collage of photos. It was on the wall. I went closer to the collage to look at it.

My eyes widened as I recognized who was on the photos. Bakura. He and another guy who looked strangely similar to him were on every photo. The guy had the same long white hair as Bakura, but it was not as spiky as Bakura's was. On every picture a heart was painted around Bakura.

It took me a moment before I realized who this guy had to be.

//Bakura's ex//, I thought.

But something was strange.

The boy had left Bakura. This seemed to be his former room. It looked like nobody had been in there for months, because dust covered everything. But what I found strange was the fact that everything was still there. A bed, books, simply everything what made the room look like somebody still lived in there. Had Bakura's ex-boyfriend left everything he'd had here? Had he just gone away without taking anything with him? Or did Bakura have a second bedroom he never used? I couldn't believe that. Why would he not want that somebody went in there then? There's something amiss...

And I also had noticed by now that I'd seen all the rooms this apartment had and there wasn't a room where his parents could sleep. And every time I was here, they weren't here. Very strange...

"What are you doing here?!"

I whirled around. Bakura stood in the doorframe and he looked angry.

//Fuck//, I thought. So much about what the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve. I'd been caught. I opened my mouth but nothing good what I could say came to my mind, so I closed it.

"Haven't I told you to not go in there?", he asked, his voice angry but low. His eyes were narrowed.

"I... I...", I stuttered. "I just..."

"What? You just what?", he hissed. "Ignore what I'd said and satisfy your curiosity?"

I didn't know what I should say. I knew that what I'd done was wrong and that he had every right to be angry.

"I-I'm sorry", I mumbled and looked to my feet to avoid his angry expression.

I cursed myself for doing what I'd done. I'd betrayed him, the boy I loved, only to satisfy my curiosity. I was so dumb! I'd ruined everything! Our relationship just started and I'd already screwed up. He had trusted me that I wouldn't go into this room, and what had I done? I'd ignored his wish and went into the room. And only because I wanted to know why I shouldn't go in there, to find out what the secret of this room was. I was so... selfish!

I still looked at my feet, not knowing what to do or what to say. Bakura didn't say anything either. An awkward silence filled the room.

I pondered. I knew that here was something wrong. Really wrong. Something was not as it should be. No, not something. Some things. Several things weren't right. And Bakura hid something. I simply sensed it.

But what should or could I do? Should I ask him what was wrong? What else could I do?

I decided to ask him. He was already angry at me, so one or two questions wouldn't make him angrier, would they? It was the only thing I could do right now. I had to know what was going on.

"Is...", I began, still staring at my feet. "Is this the former room of", I paused. "Of your ex-boyfriend?"

I heard Bakura breathing in and out before he answered. "Yes", he whispered.

"And why had he left all his things here?", I asked.

"I don't know", Bakura whispered and his voice died away more and more.

There was a short moment of silence. And there was a sob. I looked up and looked in Bakura's direction. My eyes widened as I saw that he'd clutched the doorframe. Tears flowed down his cheek. I wanted to move, to go to him, but I was like paralyzed.

"Bakura", I whispered, shocked to see him crying.

He slid down along the doorframe, pulled his knees to his chest and laid his head on them, having a total break-down.

I stormed to him, kneeling down beside him. Bakura cried and sobbed and I mumbled something I couldn't understand.

"Bakura", I said again, trying to think of something to calm him down. "Bakura, it's alright. I'm here. Please, calm down."

"No", Bakura sobbed, "Nothing's alright."

I looked at him and didn't know what to say. I was desperate. First he was angry and the next second he broke down and cried and sobbed. I felt so guilty, because it was my fault that he was like that now. If I wouldn't have gone into the room or if I would at least not have asked my questions, then he certainly wouldn't cry.

"Bakura", I said, "Tell me what's wrong. I wanna help you."

"N-Nobody can help me, Malik", he muttered. "Everything is my fault. I've done everything wrong. It's my fault. All of it."

"What, Bakura? What is your fault?", I asked.

"Everything that has happened", he answered.

I tried to think about what he was talking about.

"You mean the thing with your ex-boyfriend?", I guessed.

He didn't reply. And I didn't know what to do. Bakura's tears and sobs continued. I shouldn't have begun with my questions. I'm such a fool.

"Do you want to enlighten me 'bout everything? I wanna help you", I offered.

Bakura looked me into my eyes. Dark brown met lavender.

"I-I don't know where to start...", he muttered. "I don't know if it's right if I'll tell you..."

"Please, Bakura", I said. He nodded and took a deep breath.

"Ryou, my ex-boyfriend", he began, his voice trembling, "He... he hasn't left me."

I gave him a questioning look.

"Ryou", Bakura said. "Oh, fuck, Ryou's dead!" Bakura bit on his lower lip.

I stared at him in disbelief. "What?"

**Bakura's P.O.V**

"Ryou", I said. It hurt to say his name. I sighed mentally. I knew it was about time to finally tell anyone what really had happened to him. "Oh, fuck, Ryou's dead!", I said quickly and bit on my lower lip to prevent me from crying again.

Malik stared at me in disbelief. "What?", he asked, shocked. "He's... dead?"

I closed my eyes and simply nodded. "Yeah", I whispered.

"Why did Yugi and the others tell me that he's left you?", Malik asked.

A sad smile played on my lips. "'Cause they don't know the truth", I replied.

Malik gaped at me. He probably couldn't believe it.

"Why didn't you tell them?", he said.

"I... I don't know. I thought it would be better if they wouldn't know...", I answered.

Malik only nodded.

"Why...?", he began, but stopped in mid-sentence.

"Did he die?", I finished his sentence. Should I tell him the reason? It was probably better, now that I told him some facts, that I would tell him the rest as well. He was my boyfriend now, after all. "We... we jumped from a cliff... Ryou drowned", I explained.

Malik's expression was pitying. He laid his hand on my shoulder. "Bakura... I'm so sorry...", he muttered.

Somehow, I felt better now that somebody else knew what had happened. I'd taken this painful knowledge, only I knew about, too long with myself. It really had burdened me and now, I shared the burden with Malik and I felt better immediately.

As I'd woken up on the couch and saw light coming from that room, I jumped off the couch instantly and went there. And as I'd seen Malik in there, in the room that had belonged to Ryou, the room I hadn't wanted to enter, anger had overcome me. And then as I'd stood in the doorframe and looked around, memories came into my mind. Memories of everything Ryou and I had done in his room. Memories, that were painful for me to think about, because they made me sad. Ryou was gone and he would never come back. Those memories, they reopened the wounds. That's way I'd broken down.

And then Malik had come to me, trying to calm me down. I nearly had forgotten that he was there, but his presence had soothed me somehow. And then I'd told him everything.

Now, we sat there on the floor.

"Malik...", I said and he looked me into my eyes. "Please, don't tell the others anything."

He chewed on his lip. "Don't you think they should know about what has happened to their friend?", Malik asked.

I sighed. "Yes, of course. Some day. But... not soon", I said.

"Do you visit him?", Malik asked. I looked down at the floor.

"I can't", I answered. I really regretted not bringing him home and bury him in the graveyard, but back then when I let him floating away with the waves of the ocean I'd thought that that would be best. Now I knew it wasn't. It was one of the worst decisions I'd ever made.

"Why not?", Malik asked.

I sighed. My voice trembled. "I... He... I didn't bring him back", I explained.

Malik's eyes widened. "You mean, he's still in the ocean, floating around?" A split second, his face looked disgusted. I couldn't blame him. I understood what he thought.

I shrugged. "Maybe yes, maybe no. How would I know?"

For some minutes, we only sat there, not talking.

"Bakura", Malik said after a while.

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you something?", Malik asked.

"You just did but you can ask a second question", I told him.

Malik sighed before asking. "Where are your parents?"

I was slightly surprised that he asked that question now. But now that I'd enlightened him about so much things I could enlighten him about the rest as well.

"They're not here", I said.

"I know", Malik said, "But I meant, are they never here?"

I smiled a sad smile. "No, they're never here. They've never been here either. I don't have parents", I explained.

"They're dead, too?", he asked carefully.

I shrugged. "I don't know. And I don't know them. I've been taken to an orphanage after my birth", I told him.

"I'm sorry", he mumbled.

I forced a small smile on my face. "Don't be. It's not your fault", I assured him. Malik nodded and again silence filled the room. I leaned against the wall behind me and Malik leaned with his head against my chest. Moments later, he was asleep and not long after he was, I was, too...

**How was this chapter? I hope you liked it. Bakura was a bit moody, wasn't he? First he's angry, then he cries... Well, after all it was three in the morning. Who wouldn't be moody at that time?**

**In the next chapter, Malik will go home, but what will await him there?**

**Please write me a review and tell me what you think about the chapter/story. I'd be really really happy if I get many reviews. And you know, the more reviews I get ****, the faster I'll update. :)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi. Thanks for ya reviews. I just love to read what you think about the story. I can't get enough reviews. **

**In this chapter there's another make-out scene. :)**

**Disclaimer: Nope, I (still) don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Maybe in the next chapter then.**

**Chapter 13**

**Bakura's P.O.V**

Sunlight tickled the tip of my nose and I awoke. I blinked against the brightness.

Then, I looked around, a bit sleepy and confused. This room... I had spent the entire rest of this night here, leaning with my back and my head against the wall behind me? Not really comfortable.

I wanted to stand up but only now I noticed the sleeping form of my boyfriend, all curled up, sitting on my lap and leaning with his head against my chest. I looked down at his face. He looked so peaceful when he slept, almost like a little child, so innocent. I just had to smile. He was so cute.

But over his left eye, there was a small purple bruise, barely noticeable as it was hidden under his bangs. It remembered me of what had happened at the party and I swore to Ra, that I would kill Tristan and Duke some day for what they'd done to Malik.

I stroke his bangs out of his face and Malik moaned slightly.

"Lemme sleep, sis", he mumbled in sleep and turned around. "Only five more minutes."

I snickered.

Suddenly, Malik cast up his eyes and looked at me. Confused, he blinked several times, obviously not understanding why I was here. He looked around and then...

"Ah!", he exclaimed startled, as he recognized where he sat. He wanted to jump off of my lap, but I was faster and clutched his waist just in time so that he couldn't move an inch.

"Hey, why do you wanna go? Stay right here, love", I told him and looked him deep in the eyes.

"I.. I", he stuttered and blushed a little.

I put my index finger on his lips, showing him to be quiet.

"Sh! We don't need words to communicate", I told him, smiling. He looked at me, somewhat suspicious. I smiled even more and then, I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his.

His eyes widened, but he quickly melted into the kiss. He buried his hands in my hair and hold onto it as I leaned more and more forward until he lay on the floor and I was on top of him. Our kiss was passionate and we only broke apart because of a lack of air.

As he and I both had taken a breath, we continued where we had stopped. I bit him lightly on his lower lip, taking him by surprise. He opened his mouth and I pushed my tongue into it. While I discovered his mouth, he moaned and hold tighter on my hair. He still tasted like honey, so sweet.

As I drew my tongue back, I stopped at his lips and licked over them before I let my tongue return where it belonged.

A thought crossed my mind. I smirked and kissed Malik again and pinned him firmly to the ground. I wandered down along his throat and sucked at it. Then, my mouth wandered up again to his lips.

While I distracted him with kissing, I opened the first button of the jacket he wore over his shirt. Then the second button. I sighed mentally and cursed him for wearing a jacket. It would be much easier and it would go faster if he wouldn't wear it.

I unbuttoned his jacket and took it off, and apparently only now he noticed what I was going to do. His eyes widened a little bit and his face turned pale white, what looked weird on his tanned skin.

I felt that he wanted to open his mouth, so I stopped kissing and put a finger on his lips again. "Shush. Don't say anything. Just lay there. I know what I'm doing", I told him and kissed him again.

Now, I unbuttoned his shirt. First the first button, then the second one, then-

"Stop." Malik broke the kiss all of a sudden and struggled to free himself from me, 'cause I still pinned him to the ground. But I didn't move away.

"Why?", I asked him.

"Because...", there was a long moment of silence before he spoke again. "I have to go home now."

I blinked. "Oh...", I said and stood up so that he could stand up as well. "Okay."

He went to the door of my apartment and I followed him. Before he left the apartment, he turned around to face me.

"I'm really sorry", he said, an apologizing expression on his face, "But if I don't go home now, my family will be angrier with me than they already are."

"Of course", I mumbled.

He came back to where I stood and put a hand on my shoulder. "Bakura", he said and I looked into his eyes. "Thanks for taking care of me while I was unconscious."

I smiled. "No problem", I told him.

He sighed and turned around, but before he could walk away, I hold on to his wrist. He turned his head to look at me.

"Just... tell me were you live. Just so that I'll know it", I said. Malik nodded and explained to me where he lived.

Then, he went out of my apartment, leaving me there standing in the doorframe and looking after him, dazed. For minutes, I just stood there, looking at the elevator where Malik had disappeared in.

I sighed and went back into my apartment, closing the door behind me. Slowly, really slowly, I walked to my bedroom, but stopped as I reached the room, Ryou's former room, where Malik and I had just been in, lying on the ground, kissing and almost having sex. Almost...

Why did it always only happen almost? I mean, as Ryou had still been alive every time I tried he stopped me. And now Malik stopped me!

I beat with my fist against the doorframe, because of my frustration and my slight rage. Not a good idea, because then pain shot through my hand. I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath to calm myself.

Just as I wanted to go into my bedroom, out of Ryou's room (if I could call it Ryou's room because Ryou wasn't even alive anymore. But it was still his room), I saw something black on the floor. Malik's jacket. He must have forgotten it here. Should I call him? Hmm, I couldn't because I didn't have his phone number.

Well, then I had to bring it to him. Fortunately, I was clever enough to ask him for his address before he'd left.

Quickly, I grabbed the jacket and went out of my apartment, out of the building and set out for Malik's place, to bring his jacket back to him.

**Malik's P.O.V**

I stood in front of the apartment building Bakura lived in.

"We were so close to...", I mumbled to myself, thinking about what had nearly happened. "But I'm not ready for that..."

I had stopped Bakura because I'd been frightened. Besides, I really had to go home. But the main reason why I'd left just as he was undressing me was because I'd been frightened.

I'd seen the slight hurt expression on Bakura's face after I'd stopped him and walked away, that's why I'd apologized for having to go now. I just wasn't ready.

I sighed and shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans, heading home. I didn't even want to imagine what would await me there.

Ra, I was so in trouble!

Maybe I was lucky and my father and my siblings weren't at home.

Then, our house came into view. I gulped and prepared myself for whatever punishment had come into my father's mind.

Slowly, I opened the gate to the garden and walked along the way to the front door. I searched for my keys, and only now I noticed that I must have forgotten my jacket, where the keys were in, at Bakura's place. But I didn't need the keys, because suddenly, the door swung open. I looked up. Ishizu stood in front of me, her face stern. I gulped.

She didn't say anything, she just motioned me to come in. It was scary, really scary. My heart was pounding heavily. I thought it would smash my chest the next moment. But it didn't.

I took off my shoes, not daring to look into my sister's face, so I just looked at the floor. It was clean as always.

"Where have you been?", she asked, her voice cold and serious.

"I... I...", I couldn't form a sentence.

"Hadn't I told you to be back at eleven?", she asked. "You can be happy father isn't here at the moment. You were supposed to be at home at eleven!"

I looked at the clock that hung on the wall in the hallway.

"But... it is eleven", I decided to play a little dumb. Maybe it made everything better. Maybe worse.

"Yeah", Ishizu said. "It's eleven in the morning! You were supposed to be home at eleven _yesterday night_!", she shouted.

I got goose bumps. Ishizu was really angry. And if Ishizu was this angry, how angry would my father be?

"Oh", was the only thing I said.

"Don't play dumb, Malik", she growled. "Instead tell me where you've been the whole night."

"At... the party?", I replied. I couldn't tell her where I had been. If she would know that I'd spent the whole night in the apartment of another boy, she would instantly assume the truth. Sure, she wouldn't know that it was the truth, but she would tell it our father and he had ways and means to make me tell if it was true or not.

"Malik, I have called at the mansion where the party was", she told me. I looked up into her face. "Yes, Malik. And they told me that you've left the party early."

Uh-oh. Had they told her more?

"And you haven't left the party alone", she said, looking down at me to look for any reaction. "They said that you've left with somebody called Bakura." I bit my lip and closed my eyes. Who the hell had told her that?

"So it's true?", she asked. I didn't answer. "What have you done after you left the party? Where have you been?" What should I tell her? I couldn't tell her the truth. Father would bite off my head if he would get to know the truth. And if Ishizu would knew the truth, she would tell father everything.

I was desperate. I should have prepared an excuse, but unfortunately I hadn't thought of one before I came home. Oh, Ra! Help me if you don't want me to die!

//What should I do? What should do?//, I thought.

"Malik?", she asked. I opened my eyes again. "Please... Don't tell me..."

Fuck! She had an assumption. Was my face so easy to read?

"Don't tell me... Please tell me that I've guessed wrong and you... Malik, say that you're not gay." I looked in her blue eyes. She had a stern expression, but there was also a hint of fear. Fear for me? "Malik... You know what father will do if you're gay. That's against the rules of our family. You know what that means."

//He can punish me, but that won't make me straight//, I thought.

"Malik", Ishizu said. "Please. You don't love him. Tell me that you don't love him!", she begged. I winced. What should I say?

//But I do love him...//, I thought, desperate. What should I do? Deny that I loved him only to go around a lot of trouble? Was that worth to deny who I loved? That I loved a boy?

"Malik, now tell me!", Ishizu shouted. "If you would be gay, you know that father would punish you! He would be really upset and life would be bad for you, but not only for you. We all, Odion and I, would suffer under it." Now she wanted to make me feel guilty. "Malik! Now, say that you are straight! Say that you don't love him!"

I trembled. "I... don't love him...", I mumbled, hardly audible. Tears filled my eyes.

"What? I couldn't understand you?", she said. "Malik..."

"I'm straight! I don't love him! I DON'T LOVE HIM!!!", I yelled. Ishizu stared at me for a moment, with a somewhat content expression on her face. I panted heavily, my fists were clenched, pressed against my sides. I hated her. I really hated her. How could she demand that I should say that? And why was I so dumb to say it? Only because I wanted not more trouble than I already had. This was one of those moments where I wanted to slap her. Sometimes she was a nice sister, but sometimes she could make my life a living hell.

I ran up into my room, slammed the door and went towards my bed. There I slumped down, whereby I glanced briefly out of the window. I buried my face into my pillow and only then I realized what I had just seen as I'd glanced out of my window. Something white. Could it be?

Quickly I jumped up and looked out again, just to see something white disappear around the corner. Paralyzed, I stood there, staring out of my window, wishing that what I'd see was just my imagination. But I knew it wasn't. And I knew that the white thing had been Bakura (well, actually it had been his hair). And I knew that he certainly had heard what I'd said to Ishizu, or why else would he run away? He had heard that I had said that I didn't love him. I'd had to lie, but surely, he couldn't know that. Maybe Ishizu was convinced know that I didn't love him, but Bakura was convinced, too. Why, oh why had he been here anyway? Why?

I had to call him, just to make sure if it really had been him (though he was the only person I knew that had white hair like he had). I dialed his cellphone number he once had given me, but he didn't answer the call. Certainly he didn't want to speak to me now when he'd heard what I'd said.

That was bound to happen. I should have known that. My life had always been like that. Say one thing at the wrong moment and everything gets worse.

I ran out of my room, down the stairs and past Ishizu, who still stood in the hallway.

"Wait! Where are you going? Father had decided that you're grounded! Stay here!", she yelled while I put on my shoes.

"You know what, Ishizu?", I said and jumped up and opened the front door. "Fuck you!"

Then, I stormed out of the house. I didn't care what would await me when I would get back here, at the moment I only cared about Bakura. I had to tell him that I loved him and that I only said that to Ishizu because she forced me into saying it. Of course I didn't know if he would believe me. I could only hope that.

As I walked along the way towards the garden gate, I saw the reason why Bakura had been here at all. My jacket lay on the ground. Apparently, he had wanted to bring it to me, because I had forgotten it at his home.

I didn't pick the jacket up, instead I let it lie where it was and continued to run. Hopefully, Bakura had gone back home, because if he wouldn't be there I didn't know where else he could be.

I ran and ran and get a stitch, but I didn't want to stop. Finally, I arrived at his apartment building.

//Please be at home and let me explain everything//, I thought before I went into the building.

**Sorry, this chapter ends here, but don't worry. The next one will come soon.  
This one was a little shorter than the others, but I hope you don't mind that too much.**

**What do you think? Do you even remember the make-out scene that was at the beginning of this chapter? If you do remember it then tell me how it was. You can also give me some tips if you want, so that my make-out scenes will get better. ****Just send me a review, tell me what you think and I'll be happy, 'kay?**

Btw, this is my longest story so far. I can't believe that this was already chapter 13! 

**So, don't forget to review! ^-^**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello there! Thanks for the reviews!!!  
This is chapter 14. I've waited since I've started this story to write that that will happen in this chapter. Well, I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! and I didn't own it in the past and I won't own it in the future.**

**Chapter 14**

**Bakura's P.O.V**

Finally, I had found Malik's place, a nice house in Mediterranean style, not far away from the Domino museum.

I walked through the garden gate and was walking towards the front door as I suddenly heard yelling. I slowed my pace. Maybe I'd come at an awkward moment. Surely, Malik would be scolded for not coming home last night.

I decided that it was probably best if I would come later again. So I turned around to go somewhere else, just as somebody said my name.

"_...Bakura."_

I stopped.

Had I just imagined that? No, somebody had definitely said my name. Were they talking about me? Why? And who? Did Malik tell them that we loved each other? Did he tell them that he'd spent the night at my apartment?

I shook my head to bring me out of my thoughts. I continued to walk.

//It's rude to listen to things you're supposed to not hear//, I told myself. Sure, I was curious and wanted to know what they said, but... did I actually want to know? Sometimes, it's better to not know what people are saying about you.

I'd reached the garden gate, as I heard something I really didn't want to hear.

"I'm straight! I don't love him! I DON'T LOVE HIM!!!", Malik screamed.

My eyes widened. Shocked, I dropped Malik's jacket. I felt like breaking apart. Like my heart was ripped apart.

I was like paralyzed. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. I couldn't hear.

//What?//, I thought and tried to understand what he had just said. //What?//

This... was a nightmare! It had to be. It couldn't be true! It simply couldn't be true!

He had just said that he loved me! And now...

I stormed away, away from Malik, away from this house, away from this street. Just away. I ran and ran and ran, not caring where I ran. And while I ran, tears flowed down my face, like a waterfall, seemingly without an end. I didn't look where I ran. I couldn't think clearly.

In the end, I found myself in front of the apartment building I lived in. Quickly, I went in and took the elevator up to the top story where my apartment was. I opened the door to my apartment and went in. I slammed the door behind me and then, I collapsed on the floor.

I didn't know how long I lay there. Seconds, minutes, hours... I just didn't know. I simply lay there, sobbing, crying, the never ending stream of tears making everything wet, my face, my clothes, the floor.

//Why?//, I thought. //Why can't anybody love me?// I beat with my fist against the floor.

//Why does everyone I love don't love me or leave me alone in the blink of an eye?//

I broke out into another sobbing and curled up.

//Why can I not be happy?//, I asked myself. //What have I done that I get punished like this?//

I buried my face in my hands.

//Do the gods hate me? Why do I have to suffer like this? Every time I'm happy, something happens//, I thought. //First Ryou dies. And now I'm finally happy again and... and my lover doesn't love me!//

//Why had he said that he loved me? Why had he lied to me? Why had he kissed me? Why? Did he want to hurt me? Did he want to toy with me?//

I closed my eyes. I still sobbed and the tears didn't stop. After a while I stood up, slowly. I searched for something. Something that could help me. I smiled at the thought.

I didn't want to be toyed with anymore. I didn't want to be hurt, to suffer. If that was my destiny, then I would end it. It just wasn't fair that my life was how it was.

I hadn't grown up with parents at my side, with somebody that had loved me. I hadn't had a real childhood. I hadn't had and didn't have a family. I didn't have friends.

I laughed.

No, I was all alone. Alone in this world. Nobody cared about what happened to me.

Maybe I was just something like a clown for the gods. Something they could laugh about. Something they could cry with. Maybe my life was just a TV serial for them.

I gritted my teeth at the thought.

Finally, I found what I needed. It was on the shelf in the living room, shimmering in the light. I quickly grabbed it and before I knew what I did, I already sat on the floor in the middle of the bathroom, the angel I'd taken from the shelf was now in my upraised hand.

I would destroy whatever destiny had planned for me. Right here, right now.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and dropped the angel.

_Clink_

and the angel was burst into thousand shards of glass, all scattered over the bathroom floor. I smirked as I rolled up my left sleeve.

Why should I continue to live when I knew that all life had planned for me was pain, hurt, grief...?

Why should I continue to live when I knew that nobody loved me or that all the people that loved me would be taken away from me?

It wasn't worth it. What is sure is that I would be hurt over and over again until my dying day. Why not speed it up? If it was certain that it would end like this, why not end it now?

I mean, it wasn't like anybody would be sad that I wasn't here anymore. Because I didn't have anybody. Ryou was gone... Malik didn't love me...

I took the biggest shard I found and hold it up to the sunlight that shined into the room. The shard glinted as I turned it. I clenched my fingers around the shard, until I felt a burning pain. Slowly, I relaxed my fingers and looked at the shard, that was now covered in red liquid. Blood. My blood.

But I still smiled. Nothing could hurt physically as much as it hurt in your soul when you lose the one you loved or when you get to know that the one you loved did never love you and everything he said or did was only show.

I looked at the shard again, before I rammed it into my left arm. Of course it hurt, but like I had said, it didn't hurt as much as other things did.

"How could he do that to me?", I whispered while I watched how the blood flowed out of the cut and down my arm. Some blood drops fell on the white tiles of the bathroom, making a red pattern.

"I thought he loved me? How could he say that he didn't love me?", I asked myself. "Why had he acted like he loved me? Did he really only sport with my feelings?"

I pulled the shard out of my arm and eyed it. Then I looked at my arm. Blood flowed out of the gash and I wondered how long it would take until I'd die from exsanguination. I already felt a bit dizzy and my head hurt, but I felt dizzy since I'd heard Malik say that he didn't love me.

Again, I rammed the bloody shard into my arm and I repeated it I didn't know how often. And while I did it, I screamed. I screamed with pain, with joy, with relief, with grief, with every emotion one could feel.

And then suddenly, I dropped the shard and fell on the floor, lying on my side. I was weak. I couldn't move anymore. But... I was happy, somehow as I lay there in the pool of my own blood. Because finally, I wouldn't have to suffer anymore. I didn't have to watch over and over again that my heart was ripped apart, that I was ripped apart. Nobody would ever hurt me again... Nobody...

I closed my eyes and listened to my heart beat. My heart... how often had it already been ripped apart? I didn't know it. Way too often, anyway.

I felt how my consciousness slowly faded...

//Finally...//, I thought. "... I love you Malik... I fucking love you... but apparently... that love is only one-sided", I mumbled.

And then, I blacked out...

**Malik's P.O.V**

I ran into Bakura's apartment building, right to the elevator and then I rode up to the top story with it. I was nervous.

What should I do if he wasn't there? What should I do if he was there? What should I say? How should I explain everything? And would he believe me? Would he listen to me at all?

I sighed. I was so dumb. So dumb... This... was all Ishizu's fault. And my father's fault. If they weren't like they were, then I wouldn't think about this right now.

Finally, the elevator stopped and I ran to Bakura's apartment. Number 601. I sighed and rang the bell.

//Please be there//, I thought, desperate. I rang again. Then, I knocked at the door heavily. Once, twice, three times. There came no sound from inside of the apartment.

"Damn! If he isn't here, where is he then?", I muttered. Just as I turned around to run back to the elevator, I heard a scream.

"Bakura!", I said, relieved that he was there, but also worried. I knocked at the door again. "Bakura! Let me come in! Open the door! It's me, Malik! Please! I'm sorry, Bakura! Come on! Everything is just a misunderstanding!", I shouted.

Bakura's screaming continued. What did he do? Desperate, I looked around, searching for anything that could help me getting in there. But I couldn't find anything.

Bakura screamed and screamed and his screams made my blood run cold.

"Bakura...", I mumbled, thinking about how I could get into the apartment. I decided to use violence. My sister always said: "Violence is no solution." One more reason to use violence now, as Ishizu was wrong with many things.

So I took a run-up and jumped against the door, trying to batter it in. My first try failed, just as my second. I repeated it again and again. I had to go in there. Whatever Bakura did, I had to stop him. I had a really bad feeling about what he was doing...

So, several tries later, the door finally fell and I, too. Quickly, I jumped up and ran to where Bakura's screams came from. As I opened the door to the bathroom, I felt like being in a horror movie. My eyes widened at the horrible scene. My lover, covered in blood, lay in the pool of his own blood, his hair not white anymore, instead crimson.

I ran to him and kneeled down next to him.

"Bakura! Bakura!", I shouted and shook him. "Bakura! That's not funny! Please..."

I trembled. This was horrible! This... must be a dream! A nightmare!

"Bakura...", I whispered. "You can't be...", I trailed off.

Then, my brain finally began to work. I checked his injuries. Everywhere were gashes. Mainly on his left arm. Next to us on the floor were thousands of shards. I couldn't believe it. He... had tried to kill himself? Oh Ra, everything was my fault! If I would've told Ishizu the truth, then this would never have happened.

I took his wrist with the aim of checking his pulse.

"Come on, Bakura...", I muttered and my whole body trembled. "You can't die! I don't allow that!"

I couldn't feel his pulse. Was it because of my trembling hands or was he... Damn! He couldn't be dead! He had to have a pulse!

I tried it again...

Come on...

I sighed with relief. It had taken me a while, but finally, I'd found his pulse. It was very low, but he lived. Yet, anyway.

I pulled out my cellphone and called the ambulance.

I told them the address, what had happened and they said that they would be here in a few minutes.

Then, I took off the shirt I wore and bound it around his left arm, where the gashes were worst, so that it would stop the bleeding. I put pressure on it and hoped that the bleeding would stop.

"Come on... You have to live! Keep up! The ambulance will be here immediately. You can't just go! Bakura! I love you! Since the first time I'd seen you, I love you! Please... Don't leave me now..."

Tears flowed down my face while I kneeled besides him and did everything I could to keep him from dying. He couldn't go. I couldn't imagine my life without him. I had already made my choice by going to him. I'd chosen him over my family. But if he would go, then I'd be alone... nobody would be there for me. He couldn't go. Not now. Not because of a misunderstanding. Not because of a lie I had to make. No, not because of me.

"Bakura...", I muttered. He was so pale. Paler than I'd ever seen him. This just looked wrong. And then all the blood. It made me feel dizzy and nauseated, but I had to keep up until the ambulance men would be here.

And thankfully, they arrived here quickly.

"We take over now", one of them said to me and shoved me away. I nodded. They knew what had to be done.

//Please Bakura... You have to live...//, I begged.

They put him on a stretcher and carried him out. I followed them. I would follow Bakura from here to hell's half acre. I loved him...

Outside of the apartment building, they put him into the ambulance.

"C-can I come along?", I asked an ambulance man. He nodded.

"You can ride pillion", he said. I nodded and got in.

Moments later, the ambulance hit the road.

The whole way to the hospital, I was nervous. Would Bakura make it? Why had he done something like that? It was my fault... I felt so guilty.

Soon, we arrived at the hospital and the ambulance stopped. I jumped out and followed the ambulance men that moved Bakura on the stretcher into the ER.

I followed them until a woman grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"Stay here, okay?", she said softly, "We care for him." Then, she disappeared, leaving me alone.

Seeing that could do nothing more, I sat down nearby and waited.

I waited for Bakura to come out of wherever they'd taken him. Would he be okay? The only thing I could do was hoping. And waiting. So I hoped and hoped and hoped. And waited and waited and

waited...

**Oh my god! Bakura! Why would he do something like that?!  
****So... will he live or won't he? How long will Malik have to wait? Will he get the chance to explain everything to Bakura or will Bakura die before? **

**I know it and you don't, but you'll find out as soon as I'll have updated. And I promise that I'll update soon.**

And, did you expect this to happen? 

**Really, since I've started writing this story I waited to write this chapter.**

**Oh, and now the angel has served its purpose because this was the reason why I actually put it into the story.**

**So, please leave me a review, okay? Tell me how this was. Please?**

**See you all in chapter 15! **

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi. Welcome to chapter 15. Thank you for all the reviews to the last chapter. They made me really happy (as they always do ^-^).  
****  
Oh... do you know what I've just noticed? In the last chapter I'd written that Malik had taken his shirt off and had bound it around Bakura's arm to stop the bleeding. That means, that he wears no shirt now! He sits half-naked in the hospital!  
****Well... let's just say he wore another shirt under his shirt so that he isn't half-naked right now, okay? Because it would be kinda strange to sit without a shirt in the hospital, wouldn't it?**

**Sorry that I babble so much. Certainly you wanna read if Bakura dies or not, right? So, here's the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 15**

**Malik's P.O.V**

...and I waited.

I still waited in the waiting area, sitting on a chair. Around me, people ran nervous to and fro, doctors in white coats wove their way through the crowd of other waiting people, and every few minutes new injured persons came into the ER, bringing new worried people with them.

Every now and then nurses came to some of the people who waited and told them how their loved ones were.

Some people looked relieved, others cried for joy when they heard that things for their loved ones looked well and others again cried for grief when they were told that the things for their loved ones didn't look peaky.

I only sat there, watching them and wondering when somebody would tell me how Bakura was.

I'd waited for hours and nobody had told me about his condition yet. I didn't know if it was a bad sign that it took so long.

I was so worried. What... What if he wouldn't make it? What if he would die? What would I do then? I couldn't imagine that. A life without Bakura...

Sure, I once had lived without him. That was when I'd lived in Egypt. I hadn't known him back then. But now, I knew him pretty good. He'd told me secrets only he and I knew, just as that Ryou, his ex boyfriend, was dead and hadn't left him like all the others believed. Nobody besides me (and of course Bakura) knew it. I conveyed a great deal to him and vice versa.

I really loved him. He had to live. It was not his time to die now. It was way too early for that. Way too early.

I stared at the clock that hung on the opposite wall. Minutes that felt like days passed by in slow motion. And nobody had come yet to me to tell me how Bakura was. When would finally somebody come and tell me? When?

And so I sat there, waiting, hoping, staring, waiting, hoping, staring...

And then, as the clock showed five pm, I saw her. I knew that she had to be the one to tell me about Bakura's condition, because of the way she looked in my direction. Her eyes were focused on me. I clenched my fists and tensed up. Would the nurse bring me good news? Or bad news?

I began to tremble and I felt like I could pass out any moment. Really, I've never been this nervous in my whole life. Never.

The nurse came up to me. I closed my eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath before I looked up at her as she stopped in front of me.

I tried to read her face, but it didn't tell me anything. She wore a poker face. I gulped. Was that a bad sign or was it something nurses and doctors did generally? I didn't know.

I stood up.

"You are the one that has found the white-haired boy?", she asked.

I nodded.

"Can you tell me his full name?"

"Bakura", I said, but paused then. Had he actually told me his last name any time? I pondered. I knew I had read his last name somewhere... Hmm... Finally, it came into my mind. "Nusuja Bakura", I answered.

She nodded. Argh... when would she finally tell me about his condition? I already began to sweat and I felt nauseated.

And then I saw an expression on her face I hadn't want to see. Pity...

Oh no!

She took my hands into hers and began to speak.

"I'm sorry to say that..."

No! It couldn't be! No! No, no, no! NO! I didn't want to hear it. Please, no!

"... Bakura Nusuja died as a result of his wounds. I'm sorry", she said.

I trembled and fell backwards into the chair where I'd waited all this time, hoping that he would make it. And now, I was told that he was... dead?

"NO!!!", I screamed and bursted out in tears. "NO!!!"

....

"NO!"

My head jolted up and my eyes shot open. Panting and trembling, I looked around.

All eyes were focused on me. For a split second the whole ER seemed to stand still, before all eyes went back to where they'd been before and everybody did what they had to do.

The nurse that had been standing in front of me just a second ago had vanished. That was... weird.

An old woman who sat next to me and patted my back. "It's alright, boy", she said. "You've just been sleeping."

Now I was confused. Been sleeping? I had slept? But... Hadn't the nurse just told me that Bakura was dead? I couldn't have been sleeping. Everything had seemed so real...

I looked at the clock. It showed four pm, not five... I really must have been dreaming. I... really must have been dreaming! So... Bakura wasn't dead! Yet, that was... Or else they would have told me, wouldn't they?

I was relieved, a bit at least.

It had been a dream. Thankfully.

//Come on, Bakura...//, I thought, //You can't die. Not now. I have to tell you that I love you. You can't die.//

I hoped that my dream had really just been a dream and not something like foreshadowing or fortune telling or something like that.

Nervously, I wriggled about on my chair. Again, I looked at the clock and watched how the minutes passed. Again, I waited and hoped. I hoped that my lover would live.

It was ten to five, as a feeling overcame me, the same feeling I'd had in my dream when the nurse had come. I looked around. Then, I saw her. Like in my dream, the nurse came up to me, her eyes focused on me, though it was another nurse, not the one I'd seen in my dream.

I watched her until she stood in front of me.

"You are the one that came with the white-haired boy?", she asked.

I nodded and stood up so that I didn't have to look up to her. "Yes", I answered.

She nodded. "Are you a family member of his?", she asked.

"No", I said. "I'm his boyfriend. He hasn't got family members anymore."

She nodded again and wrote something down on a sheet of paper.

"His name?", she asked.

"Nusuja Bakura", I answered. I didn't have to think about his last name, because, luckily, I had dreamed this scene already, but hopefully it would end in a different way than in my dream.

Again, she nodded and wrote something down.

"He's in ICU, room 68A", she said, a smile crossing her face.

My eyes widened as my brain processed what I'd just heard.

I took hold of her arm before she could go away. "You mean", I began, "You mean he's alive?!"

She nodded, smiling. "Yes. Go and see him. He still sleeps, though. A doctor will talk to you later." Then, she went away.

Like paralyzed I stood there. Bakura... was alive. He was alive! ALIVE!

I felt like I would faint any moment. I was so relieved. I was so happy. I didn't know if I could have lived on if he would've died. If he would have died, I would've never forgiven myself. Never.

Quickly, I walked to room 68A. Before I went in, I glanced through the window and saw my lover laying in the bed, surrounded by tubes and other machines.

Only then, I remembered why he lay there at all and my heart dived. It was my fault why he lay there. He had tried to kill himself because of me and my stupid mouth. Everything was my fault. I should have said everything, that I loved him, that I was gay and all that, to Ishizu's face. If I would not have thought only about me, would not have only thought about the fact that my father would punish me badly, Bakura would never have heard me say that I didn't love him. Never.

And as it stood now, everything that followed on my lie was that my lover believed I didn't love him and that he'd lost his will to live and now lay in a hospital bed, and that I would have more trouble at home than I would have had if I would have told everyone the truth in the first place. If my father wouldn't have killed me before, then he surely would do it now.

But I could worry about that later. Now, it was important that I would explain everything to Bakura when he would wake up, and hopefully, he would forgive me. But of course I couldn't demand it of him. Maybe, if he wouldn't forgive me, he would at least understand my reasons for saying such things. But I couldn't demand this of him either.

I took a deep breath and went into the room. Quietly, I walked up to the bed Bakura lay in. The blanket rose and sank slowly and regularly with his breaths. His white mane which was still crimson in spots surrounded his pale face that was paler than usually, probably because of all the blood he'd lost.

I stood beside his bed, a bit unsure about what to do. I reached out my hand and stroke over his cheek.

"Oh, Bakura", I mumbled.

Then, I slumped on the chair beside the bed and took Bakura's hand into mine, but carefully so that I didn't pull out his IV line.

I felt that my cheeks were wet and I realized that I was crying. I cried for joy, for relief. For hours I'd waited to hear that he was alive, to see him, to touch him, to feel that he was alive. It was such a relief to be with him right now. I wanted to hug him, to kiss him, to do whatever he wanted to do only because I was so delighted that he lived.

I leaned forward and laid my head on his body and then, I cried. I cried because I felt so guilty. I hadn't meant to make him doing this, but nevertheless it was my fault that he lay here whether I'd done it unwittingly or not. The feeling of guilt just overwhelmed me and I cried like I'd never cried before. Yes... Guilt. One of the worst feelings there are.

**Bakura's P.O.V**

I felt that I slowly woke up. It was a strange feeling.

I knew what I'd done in my apartment, so... was I dead now?

My whole body hurt, worst was my left arm. Was death like this? Painful? Or was it only painful for those who'd committed suicide?

I didn't know it. I just lay there (though I did neither know if I really lay or if I stood or sat nor did I know where 'there' was).

I felt something on top of me, a light pressure that pushed my body down (or backwards? I couldn't tell, because I didn't know in which position I was situated).

After a while of thinking if this really was death, I decided that I should open my eyes. As I tried first it felt like my eyes didn't belong to my body. I couldn't open them. I then tried to move my fingers, but they also felt like they weren't there.

Frustrated, I gave up on moving any parts of my body and instead I tried to hear.

At first everything I heard sounded muffled or like I was underwater and somebody spoke afloat. I couldn't understand a word. Only after several moments I recognized the reason why I couldn't understand a word. Because nobody said a word. What I heard was... crying and sobbing.

I listened to the soft sound.

"B-ba-bakur-ra", somebody said between sobs. I knew that voice, but right know I couldn't tell to who it belonged.

"W-why did y-you h-have to do tha-that", the voice asked. "You near-nearly died..."

That was why I did what I'd done. But stop! Nearly died? That meant that I wasn't dead! I didn't know if I should be happy, sad or angry. After all, I had wanted to die. I had tried to die... and I had failed.

Why could I never get what I wanted? I wanted a normal life, a happy life, a family, somebody who loved me and I hadn't got anything of that. And I could not even die when I wanted it. Why was my 'life' (if you could tell the being I lead 'life') like this?

Minutes later (but it could also have been hours, days or years later, because I had lost track of time) I felt that I could move my fingers again.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. I had to blink again the brightness. As my eyes had gone used to the light, I could finally see. Everything around me was white. The ceiling, the walls, the bedcover.

But at the level of my stomach, I found the source of all the sobbing. A sand-colored spot in the midst of whiteness.

I had known that I knew the voice that had spoken. But why was he here? Why he of all people? Hadn't he said that he didn't love me? What were his reasons for being here? If I wouldn't have heard that he didn't love me, when would he'd told me anyway?

"Why are you here, Malik?", I asked, my voice a bit hoarse, but cold nevertheless.

His head jolted up and he looked at me with wide eyes.

"Bakura!", he said and sounded relieved.

I didn't understand him. Did he even know that I'd heard him saying that he didn't love me? Did he even know that I knew it? Did he even know why I lay here?

He hugged me. I narrowed my eyes. What did he think he was doing? He didn't love me, but he acted as if he did?

"Stop it!", I told him. He stopped hugging me and leaned back in his chair.

"When did you plan on telling me?", I asked. He wanted to say something, but I didn't let him speak. "When did you plan on telling me that you don't love me, Malik! When? How long would you have sported with my feelings before you'd have told me that you don't love me?"

Again, Malik wanted to say something and again I didn't let him say a word.

"Was everything just a game for you from the beginning? Just fun and for your own amusement? Haha, funny. Let's make fun about a guy that fell in love with another guy and laugh about his feelings. I thought you really loved me. I trusted you... Damn, I entrusted you with my most secret secret, Malik!"

"Bakura, please, I-"

"No! I don't want to hear what you want to say! You've lied to me. You don't love me. What is there to explain?"

"Bakura, please, calm down and list-", he tried to say, but I interrupted him.

"No, Malik! You listen! My life was complicated and hard from the very beginning. Then, Ryou came into my life and everything was good. Then suddenly, he died, and my life was destroyed. But then you came and you put the pieces of my destroyed life together again like a puzzle and I felt well and complete again."

I looked at him. This time, he didn't try to say something. He just listened. I continued.

"And then, as my life was really great, you, the one who had brought me out of my grief, destroyed my life again. You're nothing but a piece of shit", I spat.

Malik looked at me, his eyes wide, an expression full of pain and I suddenly felt bad because I'd said such things.

//He deserves it//, I told myself.

For some moments, there was nothing but silence.

"Bakura...", Malik whispered, his voice shakily. "You're right."

I furrowed my brow and looked at him.

"I... I've fucked up", he said and smiled a sad smile. "You know...", he paused, apparently not knowing what to say. "I... I do love you."

"Don't say that!", I hissed and tears of rage filled my eyes. How could he say that?! First, he said he loved me, then he said he didn't love me and then he said again he loved me. Did he want to hurt me more than he'd already hurt me? When will he have attained the end he had in view? I already tried to kill myself. What more did he want?

"I... I have to explain something... You can believe me... you don't have to... Just... listen to what I have to say, okay?", he said. I didn't reply, so he continued.

"Look..."

**So, that was chapter 15.**

**Oh, I'm such a nice person. I just couldn't let Bakura die (I never thought about killing him actually). I mean, one character death in a story is enough, don't you think?**

**But I have shocked you, haven't I? I'm talking about Malik's dream at the beginning of this chapter. Sorry if it confused you. I just had to write it to make you all gasp and stuff and think that he's really dead. Ha! I'm so mean (Not really). **

**But after all, Bakura didn't die and I hope you're just as happy about it as I am.**

**It took me an eternity and three days to think about a suitable last name for Bakura. In the end I decided to take 'Nusuja'. I know, it doesn't make sense. I formed it out of the words nusubito (=thief, as far as I know at least) and ouja (=king) (correct me if I'm wrong). And voilà Thief King. But 'Nusubitoouja' was kinda long, so I shortened it to 'Nusuja'. Not that it is important for the story. But I wanted to show you that I've thought before naming him.**

**So... the questions now are: Will Bakura trust Malik again? Will he love him again? Can he love him again? Or will they go separate ways from now on? What will Malik's father do?**

**This and more you'll get to know in the following chapter(s). **

**I'll update the next chapter as soon as I can.**

**Please review, okay? Tell me what you think and I will be happy and I'll update faster.**

**See you. **

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello there! Thanks for the reviews to the last chapter. ^-^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! How many times do I have to say that before you finally believe me?**

**Chapter 16**

**Malik's P.O.V**

"Look...", I began and then I thought about what it was best to start with. "First of all... I want to tell you the reason why I've said that I didn't love you. Believe me, please, it was a lie."

Bakura scoffed. "Sure", he mumbled and looked away from me.

I ignored him and continued. "You know, my family... My family exists for thousands of years and we... We have rules to follow. My father is really strict when it's about our family's rules. I've gotten to know a first-hand experience of that many times by now."

A sad smile crossed my face before I continued.

"If my father would get to know that I'm in love with a boy", I looked at Bakura, who still avoided my eye. "I don't know how bad he'd punish me."

Bakura now looked at me, a half worried, half not understanding expression on his face. "Why?", he mouthed.

"Because this is definitely against _our_ rules", I explained and somehow, anger came up on Bakura's face.

"I personally have never cared much about the rules, entirely different than my siblings and my father. They think that the rules are important, I think that's nonsense. But nobody cares about what I think, I'm afraid. They punish me every time I break the rules. I'm always afraid of that, so I didn't tell them that I love you."

I paused for a moment before I continued.

"Well... As I walked home this morning, I was aware that I'd be punished for coming not home last night. My father had given me strict instructions to be home at eleven, and I wasn't, so I disobeyed him. I'd expected that, though they didn't get the chance to punish me yet. But as soon as I'll be at home, my father will punish me and that is for sure. Yes, I expected that. But I hadn't expected that my sister got wind of the fact that I possibly love a boy. She confronted me with that and said that if I was gay, I'd be punished by our father and that he would not only take his anger out on me, but also on my siblings and stuff like that to make me feel guilty. I didn't want that my siblings would be punished for something I did... that would be just not right. So I told her that I don't love you", my voice died away at the last few words.

I looked at Bakura, but his expression was unreadable. I didn't know if he believed me or not or if he was angry or if he understood my reasons for acting like I did.

"It was really hard to say that, you know. To deny that I love you. But... I only wanted to prevent more trouble than I'd already had. Sure, there would be a time when I'd have to tell my father the truth, but then I'd be prepared to face him. Believe me, Bakura, I hadn't meant those things I'd said. I do love you. I love you so much, more than I'd ever loved somebody before, but I understand if you don't feel about me in the same way anymore and if you don't believe me. I know that I'm to blame for everything that happened. If I would've told my family the truth from the beginning, then you wouldn't lie here, death narrowly escaped and injured. I'm so sorry...", my voice broke slightly and a tear ran down my face and dropped on my hand.

"I think I better go now...", I mumbled and stood up, ready to leave. I couldn't stand it anymore. I knew it was all my fault that he probably didn't love me anymore, but that meant that it wasn't bad. To know that it was yourself that ruined everything, your own life and the life of the one you loved, made it that bad.

//How could he love me after what I've done?//, I asked myself. //I made him attempting to kill himself. There's no way that he can love me, forgive me. I don't even think that he believes me...//

I walked towards the door, as he suddenly began to speak.

**Bakura's P.O.V**

"Malik", I said and he stopped. He didn't turn around, though. I sat up in the bed, ignoring the pain that shot through my arm with every move I made.

I didn't know if he really said the truth or if this was only an excuse... but it sounded as if it was true. And if all he had said was true, then I could understand him, too, and why he acted like he had. But... I wasn't sure if I should or could forgive him.

I mean, I nearly killed myself because of him! Though I had to admit that it had probably been a little hasty. But that wasn't my fault. Was it? How the hell should I have known that it was a lie (if Malik really spoke the truth)?

However, that I tried to kill myself for love only meant that I really loved Malik. Yes, I loved him. Very much in fact. Even if everything he'd just said was a lie... it didn't matter. Love didn't listen to reason. And I loved him with heart and soul. And, after all, I was still alive. My attempt to kill myself had failed (what seemed to be good in the end) and... yeah. I wasn't dead, only injured, but that was my own fault.

So... I could forgive him, couldn't I? I mean, I really loved him and if I'd lose him I would never forgive myself for making that mistake.

"Malik", I said again. "I... I do love you, you know. That was the reason that made me acting like I did."

Malik turned around and looked at me. "Really? After all I've done wrong?"

I nodded. "Yeah. As I'd heard you saying that you didn't love me, I was so... shattered. I thought you didn't love me, but I loved you with all my heart. I couldn't stand the thought that our love was one-sided, that you didn't love me. I didn't know what I should do. My life had always been hard and I'd thought that if I would end it, everything probably would be better and stuff. So I tried to kill myself... for love. I wanted to kill myself for _you_. Because I thought you could never belong to me. That only shows how much I love you, right?"

Malik didn't answer. He just looked at me, his face first blank, then confused, sad, happy and slightly angry, too.

"And you really thought killing yourself would make everything better? And it would show how much you loved me?!", he asked.

I shrugged. "It's just what I've thought then...", I muttered. "And excuse me, but I was in an emotional state of shock! I thought you didn't love me! I felt like there was no more reason to live! I couldn't think clear!"

Malik came back to the bed I lay in. "I'm sorry...", he muttered.

Then, he just looked at me and sighed. "Your so stupid...", he muttered. "So stupid! I could have lost you! Forever! I mean... What should I have done if you would have succeeded in killing yourself? Huh? If you'd be gone forever only because of me? Because I lied to my sister and you heard that by accident and ... Argh!", he paused for a moment and I looked down at the blanket. "What should I have done then?", he continued. "Or what if I wouldn't have seen you running away from our house? What would have happened? You would be dead now, that's what would've happened! And I would not even known why you would be dead... Oh, Bakura!"

Suddenly, two arms embraced me and pushed me backwards against the pillow.

"Oh, Bakura!", Malik sobbed.

I just stared at him, a little surprised. Then, I embraced him back. "Maybe... I acted rashly... and perhaps I overreacted slightly, too, huh?", I said.

Malik nodded. "I could have never forgiven me if you would've died...", he muttered.

"But it's okay now", I told him. "I'm alive and that's what counts, right?"

He nodded again. "Yeah."

I sighed. "I'm sorry for making you worry and stuff... can you forgive me?"

Malik looked at me as if I was gone crazy. "I shall forgive you?", he said. "For what? Everything you did was because I said such things. There's nothing to be forgiven. I should be the one to ask you if you can forgive me", he added.

"Of course I forgive you", I answered. "How could I not? I love you way too much..."

Malik smiled. I pushed his head downward so that I could kiss him.

I was... relieved. Relieved that everything Malik had said to his sister had been a lie and that he really loved me. And I was relieved that I was alive. Somehow, it would have really sucked if I would have been dead and then I would've gotten to know that Malik didn't mean what he said.

As we needed air, we broke apart.

"Malik", I said before I kissed him again, passionately. He climbed up into the bed.

"What?", he asked as we broke apart again.

"You know that you have to tell your family some time soon that you love me, do you?"

He sighed. "Yeah. I do know that. But I'm not sure how they'll take it..."

"I'll be there then", I told him.

He nodded and we kissed again, as suddenly somebody cleared his throat.

Malik and I stopped kissing and turned to see who disturbed us. It was a doctor.

Malik blushed, heavily in fact, and climbed out of the bed.

The doctor couldn't hide his smile. I had to smile, too, because of Malik's sweet blush.

"So... I'm glad you're awake", the doctor said to me. I nodded.

"You must be his boyfriend", he then addressed Malik.

"That's right. I'm Malik", Malik replied.

The doctor nodded and reached out his hand. "My name is Dr. Minamoto."

Malik shook the hand. The doctor then addresses me again.

"Well, how do you feel?", he asked me.

//How do you think I feel after narrowly escaping death?//, I thought. I hated those questions where the answers were obvious.

I shrugged lightly to answer the doctor's question. "Fine, I think...", I muttered.

He nodded. "Can I please take a look at your arm?", he asked.

I nodded and he walked to the left side of the bed I lay in. Malik took my hand in his and stroke it. I looked at him and smiled, before I looked at my arm for the first time, because I just hadn't thought of looking at it before. There was a think bandage that was red in some spots where the blood had come through.

Dr. Minamoto undid the bandage carefully to look at the injuries. Malik gasped as my arm was revealed. I gulped.

My left arm was covered with gashes, deep gashes.

//Oh, shit//, I thought. //Why the hell did I do this?//

"Well...", Dr. Minamoto said, "The gashes are rather deep and it'll take some time until they'll be healed, but certainly that'll leave scars."

I nodded. It was my own fault. I did this to myself, and now I had to get along with the consequences.

"You have lost a lot of blood, too", the doctor said, while he wrapped a new bandage around my arm. Then, he looked at the gashes on my right arm and the gash on my stomach (I didn't even remember stabbing in there). "I think, as long as the wounds won't become infected, you only have to stay the night here and you can go tomorrow", he said.

Both Malik and I nodded.

The doctor turned and went towards the door. I wondered if he would ask me how the gashes happened and why I did it. Hopefully, he would forget to ask, because I didn't want to explain it.

As the doc was already at the door, he stopped and looked at us again.

"Malik, I'd like to talk to you just for a moment, if that's okay", he said. Malik looked a little surprised.

"Uhm... sure", he said and looked at me, before he went out of the room with Dr. Minamoto.

**Malik's P.O.V**

I walked out of the room with the doctor and wondered what it was he wanted to talk about with me. But I could imagine what it was...

He walked some paces away from the room Bakura lay in and I followed him. He then stopped and turned round to face me.

"I wanted to ask how this happened exactly", he said.

I sighed mentally. What should I say?

"Uhm... well, he..." I decided to say the truth, because it was probably the best. "Bakura... he tried to kill himself as far as I know", I said.

The doctor nodded. "Do you know the reason?"

If I would answer with yes, then he would probably start to question me.

"No", I lied. Again, Dr. Minamoto merely nodded.

"Has he done something like that ever before?", he asked. I shook my head.

"Do you think that a therapy is needed?", he asked me. My eyes widened. I knew that Bakura would definitely not want to go to a therapy session.

"No, I think a therapy isn't needed. I... I think it was... just a emotional... breakdown", I said to him. The doctor raised one eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

After a while, he nodded again. "That was all I wanted to talk about. You can go back to him now, but make sure that Bakura stays in the bed and can rest", he said and twinkled.

I blushed again, because surely, that was an allusion to earlier when Bakura and I had kissed. I nodded and went back into Bakura's room.

"What did he say?", Bakura asked.

I shrugged and sat down on the chair besides the bed. "He wanted to talk about how you received these injuries", I said. "I told him that you tried to kill yourself... But I didn't tell him anything more."

Bakura merely nodded.

"He also asked if a therapy is needed, but I said that it isn't. That's right, isn't it?", I asked him.

"Yes, of course!", he exclaimed.

I smiled. "I thought so. And he said that you need to rest." Bakura rolled his eyes.

For a moment, neither of us said something. I looked at the clock. It was half past seven by now. I sighed. At home, a lot of trouble would await me.

"Why are you sighing?", Bakura asked me.

"I just thought of how much trouble will await me at home", I told him.

"Then... don't go home tonight", Bakura said. "Stay here."

I shrugged. "I don't know... But, okay", I agreed. At home would already await me a lot of trouble, so what did I have to lose if I would not come home this night, too? My father and my siblings were already more than angry at me. There wouldn't be much of a difference. I knew I would have to go back home sooner or later, but I would at least try to delay it as long as I could.

As a nurse came into the room later, I told her that I would stay the night here and she brought me a blanket. I made myself comfortable in the chair next to Bakura's bed. We talked a while until Bakura had to take his painkillers, whereupon he fell asleep quickly.

It took me longer to fall asleep, because I thought so much. When should I tell my father everything? What would he do? I... I was afraid of the moment when I'd tell him. But it was inevitable. Some time I would have to tell him.

Sometime finally, I fell asleep, too...

**And that was chapter 16. I had to write a dialog between Malik and the doctor because I think that a normal doctor would suggest a therapy if somebody trys to kill oneself. **

**I still don't know how much more chapters this story will have. Maybe two more chapters, but I'm not sure. Maybe more, but I don't think less.**

**I'll update as soon as I can.**

**Please review, okay? Because reviews make me happy. ^-^ And they are also an incentive.**

**So, see you soon. :)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi there! Thanks for the reviews. I don't know what I shall babble about, so just start to read.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 17**

**Malik's P.O.V**

I woke up as sunlight shined into the room. I was a bit confused. Where was I? What had happened?

And then, everything that had happened yesterday came back into my mind.

_The memory of Bakura lying in a pool of blood on the floor in his bathroom. _

_The fear I felt until the ambulance arrived._

_How nervous I'd been while I'd been waiting in the ER, hoping that Bakura would make it._

_The happiness and relief I felt as the nurse had told me that he was alive._

_The memory of me visiting Bakura in his room where he still had been sleeping._

_How overjoyed I'd been when he had forgiven me and had kissed me._

_And the last thing I remembered was me falling asleep on the chair next to his hospital-bed._

I looked sidewards to the peacefully sleeping form of my boyfriend. Today, he'd be released if everything was alright with him. After all, the gashes on his body were rather deep and they could become infected, but hopefully this wouldn't happen.

As I wanted to stand up, I noticed that Bakura hold my hand in his what made it more difficult to not wake him up by standing up. Carefully, I pulled my hand back from his. He moaned softly and turned his head into the other direction, but he didn't wake up.

Quietly, I walked out of the room. Nearly all the people on the ward were still asleep. I looked at the big clock in the middle of the hall. It was half past six. I sighed and went back into the room where I sat down again on the chair.

I watched Bakura sleeping. But after a while, something came to my mind. Bakura's clothes were bloodstained and torn at some spots and if he wanted to go home today some new clothes would be good.

//Hmm... Maybe I could go quickly to his apartment and bring him some new clothes. I don't think that he'll awake soon//, I thought. //And if he will wake up?//

I looked around and found a piece of paper and a pen. Quickly, I wrote something down and laid it on the chair I'd spent the night on.

Then, I went out of the room, leaving my sleeping boyfriend in the room, but I would come back. I told the nurse that I went home now to bring Bakura some new clothes and that I'd come back soon.

As I was outside of the hospital, I began to run, because I didn't want that Bakura would wake up before I was back. So I hurried.

After a while of running, I reached the apartment building, went in and rode with the elevator up to the top story. The door to the apartment was open. Actually, the door lay flat on the floor, because I'd kicked it in as there had been no other way to get in there.

I shrugged and went over the door into the apartment. Then, I uplifted the door with big effort and tried to remount it in the door hinges. If I wouldn't succeed, then I would buy him a new door, of course.

But, thankfully, that wasn't necessary. The door wasn't really broken, just unhinged. I sighed with relief and closed the door behind me.

Then, I went into Bakura's bedroom and to his closet. I opened it and searched for something I would bring him to the hospital. I chose a black T-shirt and a pair of dark jeans for him.

I looked down at myself. My clothes were blood-spotted in some places, too. But I didn't want to go home to change.

//Maybe I can borrow a shirt of his...//, I thought and searched quickly for a shirt. Normally, I preferred short shirts that were not too tight, but Bakura had either really tight shirts or baggy shirts. In the end, I took his blue-white striped shirt, the one he often wore. Hopefully, he wouldn't mind that I wore it.

I left my clothes here and was about to leave the apartment, as something came to my mind.

//Shall I clean the mess in the bathroom?//, I asked myself, but as I took a look at the clock I decided that I better go back to the hospital, because if Bakura wasn't awake yet, he would surely be soon.

So I headed back to the hospital with the new clothes for Bakura.

**Bakura's P.O.V**

"Uh...", I awoke groaning and blinked against the brightness.

Tired and somewhat confused, I rubbed my eyes and looked around.

Oh, right. I was in the hospital. I had almost forgotten about it. But something was... different than before I'd fallen asleep last night.

My eyes wandered to the empty chair next to my bed.

//Where's Malik?//, I exclaimed mentally. Where was he? Had he... left me alone here? Had everything been only a dream and he'd never been here at all? No... it had been reality.

I looked around hysterically, but nowhere was my boyfriend.

//Maybe he is just gone to the toilet or to the kiosk or something. Certainly, he will be back soon//, I tried to calm myself.

Then, I suddenly saw a piece of paper laying on the floor next to the chair. I reached out my hand, picked it up and read the text that was written on it in a scratchy handwriting I only knew to well.

_Hey Bakura._

_If you read this it means that you're awake before I am back._

_Please stay calm, I'll be back soon, okay?_

_I just bring you some new clothes from your apartment, so don't worry._

_I love you, _

_XMalikX_

I sighed with relief. So he would come back.

I laid the letter on the chair and leaned back on my pillow. But when would he be back exactly? How long would I have to wait? I sighed. I hated waiting.

After a while, there was a knock at the door. Was Malik back? Hopefully...

"Hello, here is your breakfast." I groaned mentally. It wasn't Malik. It was just a nurse who brought me my breakfast.

"Oh, uhm... please put it on the table", I said and pointed to the small table next to the window. The nurse nodded.

"Dr. Minamoto said that we could pull your IV out, if you want", she said.

"Uh, okay", I answered and reached out my arm to get rid of the annoying needle.

"Here we are", she said, smiling, as the IV was out. Then, she went out of the room.

I sighed and sat up. Carefully and slowly, I turned at one side of the bed and hopped out. I felt a bit dizzy as I walked over to the table where my breakfast was.

I wasn't hungry at all, but I started eating nevertheless to kill time until Malik would be back.

I had just finished eating as the door swung open and Malik came in.

I jumped up (what made my head spinning) and staggered towards Malik, who caught me.

"Careful", he said.

"Malik", I mumbled.

"I'm sorry, it took me a little longer than I'd expected to bring you some clothes", Malik apologized.

I shrugged and pressed my lips against his. "At least you're here now", I said.

"Here", he said and gave a shirt and a pair of jeans to me.

I nodded and disappeared in the bathroom to change.

"Was the doctor already here today?", Malik asked as I came out of the bathroom. I shook my head.

"No, only a nurse who pulled the IV out", I replied.

"Are you feeling better?", he asked.

"Yes, now that you're here I'm feeling great", I answered truthfully. Malik smiled as I embraced him. I looked down at him.

"Uh, hey, isn't that my shirt?", I asked him.

He blushed. "Well... I hope you don't mind that I wear it. My shirt was blood-spotted and I didn't want to go home, and as I was already at your apartment to bring you some clothes I thought I could maybe borrow a shirt for a while, you know", he explained.

I smiled. "Of course I don't mind... It suits you, by the way", I said, grinning.

Malik merely shrugged.

A little later, Dr. Minamoto came and told me that I could go home after he would've changed the bandage. He gave me some painkillers for at home, too, so that I wouldn't have to suffer. So as soon as everything was done, Malik and I left the hospital and headed to my apartment. I still felt a bit dizzy, so walking was really hard and exhausting for me.

Once we entered the apartment, I instantly lay down on the couch in the living room.

"Bakura?", Malik asked, somewhat worried. "Are you okay? Is there anything I can do?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm fine. Really. Just a little exhausted." Malik nodded and sat down next to where I lay on the couch.

He started to strike my head and I closed my eyes. I had nearly fallen asleep as he suddenly sighed.

"What is it?", I asked, my eyes still closed.

"I just thought about what we will do next...", he said.

I opened my eyes and looked at him. "What do you mean?", I asked him.

He shrugged. "I just wonder what will happen next. And... what I'm going to do now."

I furrowed my brow. Malik sighed again.

"I mean... I really don't wanna go home right now. You know that there awaits me a lot of trouble. And I also thought about when I should tell my father everything", he paused for a moment. "I'm afraid of how he'll react, you know..."

I sat up and took his hand into mine. "Malik. Whatever will happen, I'll be there for you, okay?" Malik looked at me, a small smile on his face. "And if you don't wanna go home... well, you could stay here with me."

Malik's eyes widened. "Are you serious?", he asked.

"Of course", I replied. "Feel at home."

He then embraced me.

"Uhm... Malik, careful. My arm", I said.

"Oh, sorry", he quickly stopped embracing me.

I leaned my head against his chest. "I'm tired", I muttered.

"Then sleep", Malik answered. I smiled and closed my eyes.

"Of course..."

**Malik's P.O.V**

Bakura fell asleep leaning against my chest. After a while, I carefully positioned him so that his head lay on a pillow and I could stand up. Because I hadn't forgotten that there still was a mess in the bathroom I should clean up.

Quietly not to wake Bakura up, I searched for cleaning utensils and as I'd finally found them, I went into the bathroom.

I wrinkled my nose. Not a pretty sight, the pool of blood and all the shards. I took a deep breath and began with cleaning the floor. It didn't take me long, and as I had finished I went back into the living room to look if Bakura still slept. He did, and I didn't know what I should do now.

Suddenly, my stomach growled. I hadn't eaten anything the whole morning and yesterday either. I was starving. I knew where the kitchen was and I didn't think that Bakura would mind if I'd eat something...

...

I sat down next to Bakura again after I'd eaten something and didn't know what I should do. A thought came to my mind and I pulled my cellphone out and turned it on.

Two missed calls from Odion, three missed calls from Ishizu and five missed calls from father. I knew that they would call me, that's why I had turned the cellphone off.

I began to think. Maybe it wasn't good if I would delay meeting my father and presenting him my boyfriend. Probably it made everything only worse.

I sighed as I remembered in how much trouble I already was in. After all, I hadn't been at home for two nights now and I'd only dropped by for about a quarter of an hour the day before yesterday and then I'd vanished again. And I hadn't answered their calls... Oh dear! I wondered if father would call the police soon or if he had already. That was another reason why I should go home and smooth things over, even if I'd be punished therefor. If it would be too bad then Bakura would be there for me at least.

...

It was already three pm as Bakura woke up.

"Well? Finally awake?", I said to him. He grinned and yawned. Then, he furrowed his brow.

"Malik? What's wrong? You look worried, somehow", Bakura said.

Was my face a book or something? Everybody could directly read what I thought or felt from my face!

I sighed. "I... just thought that it would probably be better if I'd go to my father and tell him everything soon or things will go worse", I explained. Bakura nodded.

"I can understand you, Malik." A moment of silence followed before he spoke again. "If you want to, I can go with you to your place. Maybe it will help that I'm with you when you explain everything and your father won't get too angry."

I scoffed. "You don't know him."

"But it's worth a try, isn't it? And I told you I would be there for you, whatever happens. I think I should go with you and present me to your family", he said.

"But... they'll probably kill you! And not only you, me in any case!", I told him.

"I think I'll take that risk", Bakura said. "In the end we're maybe both dead and not only you", he smirked.

I rolled my eyes.

"Are you sure that your condition is good enough for you to do something like that? The doctor has said that you need to rest, Bakura."

"Ah, Malik. I can rest afterwards, too", he said and stood up.

I sighed. "Okay..."

Then, we headed to my place.

As slowly my house came into view, I clung to his right arm (because the left one was more hurt). Maybe it wasn't the right time to tell my father...

"Changed your mind?", Bakura asked me. I looked at him.

"I don't know...", I whispered.

"We can make it, believe me, love", he said to me. I nodded.

With Bakura at my side, I could tell my father... Hopefully.

And then, we stood in front of the garden gate. My heart pounded heavily. I thought it would smash my chest any moment. I took a deep breath and Bakura squeezed my hand encouraging.

"I'll help you, 'kay?", he whispered.

I nodded.

We opened the gate and went along the way to the front door. It felt like the way was only half as long as normally, so suddenly, we stood in front of the door.

I gulped. My hands trembled. I looked at Bakura. He nodded. Again, I took a deep breath . Then, I rang the bell. Ra, I was so frightened I could wet my pants!

I didn't even know if anybody was at home. Maybe they were working. Yeah... maybe they were at the museum. Then I could come back at another time and rethink everything again.

But my hopes were blasted as the door opened and Odion stood in front of me.

He looked down at me, unbelieving what he was seeing.

"Malik", he said.

"Uhm... Hi, hehe." Ra, I was so pathetic.

"You're back", he whispered. I knew that he was glad, it was written in his eyes. But certainly, he had strict orders from our father to not be nice to me or show me that he was glad that I'm back or something.

Bakura squeezed my hand again. I looked at him and apparently only now, Odion got sight of him. As my brother saw my boyfriend and me holding hands, he frowned and shook his head.

"Odion...", I mumbled softly.

"Malik... You know that you're already in a lot of trouble. And then you have the nerve to come with _him_?!", he said. "The whole time, I thought Ishizu was wrong with her whole Malik-is-gay-though-he-denies-it feeling. I hoped that you wouldn't be...", Odion trailed off. "But obviously, she was right all along."

"But, Odion, tell me... what's so bad about it?", I muttered.

"It's... It's just not right, Malik", he answered. "You know our rules."

A moment of silence followed, that was broken by the voice of my father coming from somewhere in the house. "Odion, who is at the door?", he shouted.

Odion sighed. "Malik, you know I love you", he whispered quickly, "And I wish I could help you, but... you have to deal alone with father. It's none of my business. I'm sorry."

Then, my brother went into the house, leaving me and Bakura alone in front of the door while he told my father that I was back.

"WHAT?!", I heard my father shouting and I winced. I hold tighter on Bakura's arm. "His number is up!", my father growled.

My eyes widened and I trembled badly. What would my father do? And how much angrier will he get when I'll confirm him that I am gay?

My father came into view. I gulped.

"Well, well, well! You're back as it is", he said, then his gaze fell on Bakura. "Who is this?", he growled.

I shivered from the cold tone his voice had.

"Dad...", I began and took a deep breath, "This... is Bakura, my boyfriend."

**So, now you certainly wanna know how this goes on, huh?**

**How will Malik's father react? What will he do?**

**Just wait for the next chapter and then, you'll know.**

**I'll update as soon as I can. **

**Please leave me a review and I'll be happy, okay?**

**Don't forget it!**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay... This is the last chapter (shock!). I made it as good as I could. I hope you like it. And thanks for the reviews.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Believe it or not.**

**Chapter 18**

**Malik's P.O.V**

I watched my father's face and looked for any reaction that would tell me what he was thinking.

His right eye began to twitch dangerously.

Uh-oh... Normally, that was not a good sign. The last time his eye had twitched like that had been years ago, when we'd still lived in Egypt and we'd been kids. Ishizu and I had made a short trip to the city, although father had forbidden it. As father had noticed this, he'd punished Odion badly, because he had been responsible for us. That had been when he'd had the same look as he had now.

I surely was in for something. Ra, help me!

To my surprise, as my father spoke his face was still... well, not calm or what you could call normal, but normal for him. Only slightly angry... yet, that was.

"Repeat that", my father growled threatening.

I gulped. Why did I have to tell him again?

"I... I...", I stuttered. //Come on, Malik. Pull yourself together!//, I told myself. Bakura squeezed my hand again, but that didn't help much. "My... boyfriend. He's my... boyfriend", I finally said and pointed to Bakura, while I took a step backward, as a precaution.

My father's eyes narrowed. I felt how heavily my heart beat against my chest. I chewed on my lower lip and hoped that my father would at least not do something to Bakura and that he would instead take all his anger out on me, but hopefully not too badly.

A smirk crossed my father's face. Suddenly, he took a step towards me and seized me roughly by the collar. It happened too fast, so that I couldn't react. As he pulled me into the house, I lost hold of Bakura's hand.

Desperately, I looked to my lover. "Help", I mouthed, before I was roughly pressed against the wall in the hallway.

I 'ngh'ed and tried to struggle, but my father hold me firmly so that I barely could move.

"You dare to tell me that? Me?", my father said to me and tightened his grip. "You little-"

He was interrupted as suddenly, Bakura pushed him away. My father relinquished his hold on me and I fell to the ground where I landed on my bottom.

"Don't treat Malik like this!", Bakura yelled and stood protectively in front of me, his bandaged arms outstretched to hinder my angry father from collaring me again. Although he was injured, he tried to protect me...

"And who are you to speak to me like that, faggot?", my father spat, his face furious.

Bakura clenched his fist. Maybe now he understood completely why I delayed telling my family that I was gay and why I'd told him that it wouldn't be easy and that it would not be just coming here, telling my father everything and then going again.

I still sat on the floor and cowered. But what had I expected? That my father would happy about the fact that his only true son was gay? No, of course I'd known that he would be angry. And certainly, this was only the beginning. I'd broken too much family-rules in the last forty-eight hours. And up to now, he hadn't even done anything real to punish me.

"I'm his boyfriend", Bakura answered to my father's question.

The eyes of my father narrowed once more.

All at once, he grabbed Bakura at his hair and pushed him away from me, towards the door. Then, my father collared him. Bakura struggled, but he couldn't escape my father's grip.

"You have ruined my son! You are the reason for this to happen!", my father shouted and tightened his grip on Bakura. "You have stained him! Get the hell out of here!"

I only watched with wide eyes, unable to do anything. Like paralyzed I merely sat where I was, not knowing what to do. I... was frightened. Frightened of what my father would do to Bakura and what he'd do to me.

My father threw Bakura literally out of the house and my lover landed face down on the garden path. Alarmed, I jumped to my feet.

"Bakura!", I shouted, my mouth covered with my hand, as I ran towards the door, hoping that he wasn't hurt, but before I could get there, my father slammed the door shut.

"Uh-uh-uh, _you_ go nowhere", my father growled and shook his head. I backed off.

"Father, please, try to understand...", I began, though I knew that it wouldn't help.

"Understand? Understand?!", my father shouted. "There is nothing to understand. You stained the name of our family, Malik! You stained the name Ishtar as well as our family honor. I don't know what else there is to understand."

He grabbed me again at my shoulders and faced me. His cold purple-gray eyes pierced me. I began to tremble.

"Father...", I muttered, helpless. I feared whatever he would do to punish me.

I heard strokes against the front door.

"Open that fucking door!"

It was Bakura, what meant that he was probably okay.

I looked desperately to the door and hoped that it would open somehow magically, but it didn't. My father took my chin and forced me to look into his eyes again.

"What did you think, Malik?", he asked me. "You know the rules. You know them all. Did you think that I wouldn't punish you for breaking the rules?"

I didn't answer him. I just thought. Why could I not just push him away and disappear forever, never meet him again? Why did I not fight back right now? Why?

Because I was weak... and frightened...

"Well", my father continued, growing angrier as I didn't reply to his questions. "If you've thought that, then you better think again. Because I won't let you get away with your unacceptable, wrong behavior."

He dragged me towards the staircase that led down to the basement. His firm grip prevented me from struggling. I looked back over my shoulder to the front door where Bakura still struck against it and yelled.

Roughly, my father pushed me further and further down and Bakura's yelling got quieter and quieter until we reached the foot of the staircase and I couldn't here the shouting anymore at all. It was dark and cool down there and kinda scary. I had been here only once since we lived here. It reminded me of the place where we had lived in Egypt, though the memory wasn't a good one.

My father pushed me into a dark hallway.

"Father...", I began again. "Please, understand... I _love_ him."

_Slap_

My father had slapped my face. I narrowed my eyes slightly and touched my cheek that felt hot now with my trembling hand.

"You are not allowed to say that!", my father snarled. "Now! Go in there!"

He shoved me into a chamber that was only faintly lit.

"Father!", I protested.

"Don't you dare to call me that again! You are not my son! My son wouldn't break the rules over and over again!", my father shouted. "You are not dignified to call yourself my son, a member of the Ishtar family."

My eyes widened in shock. I gulped. What?! I felt my eyes fill up with tears.

It was one thing to hurt someone physically, but it was another thing to hurt someone in his soul, in his heart. How could my father say to me that I didn't belong to the family? That I was not worth to be one of them? It hurt probably more than any physically pain could ever hurt.

I was glad that I'd turned my back on him now so that he couldn't see how badly that had hurt.

"So... You're cutting me out of your will or something?", I said, my voice shakily and a disbelieving smile on my face.

"No", my father growled. "But I will bring you back to your senses!", he shouted.

_Slap_

Pain shot through my back all of a sudden and I sunk down to the ground on my knees, screaming.

I breathed heavily and as I'd turned round, my father stood behind me, grinning evilly...

**Bakura's P.O.V**

I struck against the front door.

"Open it!", I yelled, but nobody let me in. "Anybody! Let me in!"

It was useless. Of course, nobody would let me in.

I sighed and wiped with my hand over my mouth. As I looked at my hand, it was bloody.

"Dammit!", I hissed and wiped again over my mouth. The blood flowed out of my nose and down my face. Apparently, I had hit the ground hard with my face as Malik's father had thrown me out.

But I had bigger problems than a bleeding nose at the moment. I had to get in there and rescue Malik. I hadn't expected that this would go like this.

Quickly, I walked around the house, searching for an open door, an open window, anything. But I had no luck.

I paced in front of one window. //Think, Bakura, think//, I told myself.

Suddenly, I heard a piteous, pained scream and my heart seemed to miss one beat.

That was Malik! Something terrible was happening and I couldn't help him!

I walked faster back and forth. I had to do something before it would be too late! I didn't know what Malik's father did to him. Would he kill him?

Desperately, I thought about what I should do, until suddenly there was a knock at the window. Inside in front of the window stood Malik's brother, Odion. He opened the window and put one finger on his mouth, gesturing me to be quiet. I nodded. He helped me.

"Don't tell anyone. Go and help my brother. He's down in the cellar. Hurry up! Rescue him and then hide him somewhere. But don't tell anyone that I helped you, okay?", Odion whispered quickly as I climbed through the window. I nodded to show that I had understand.

"Thank you", I muttered. He pointed to a staircase and I rushed to it. It led down to the cellar. I took a deep breath and ran down the stairs, taking two or three steps at a time. I had to rescue Malik. I had to hurry...

Down in the cellar it was cool and dark. I could barely see. Quietly, I walked into a hallway. Where was Malik?

"AAHHHHH!!!" A heart-piercing cry filled the darkness all of a sudden.

//Malik!//, I thought. I ran to the door that led into the room where I'd thought the cry had come from. I pushed the handle. The door was locked.

"Argh...", I threw my hands up in a frustrated manner. "What now?"

I winced as Malik screamed again. Then, a moment of silence followed. I pressed my ear against the door to hear something.

"Father... please...", Malik begged with a weak voice.

"I told you not to call me father! You are not my son! Or else you would do what I say!", Malik's father shouted.

A noise like a crack of a whip sounded.

Malik screamed again.

"Father...", he panted. "I can't... anymore... Stop..."

"I won't stop before you aren't back to your senses!", his father growled.

"You don't understand...", Malik mumbled, barely audible for me now. "Maybe you don't know the feeling of love..."

Another lash and a cry of Malik. But Malik continued.

"Probably, your heart is too cold, too stony to feel anything at all..."

"Don't you dare to speak to me like that!", his father yelled.

"You're too cold-hearted to understand me...", Malik said, though it was almost a whisper. "You only care about the family honor, the rules, but you don't care about your family. A father has the duty to understand his children, to be there for his own flesh and blood... but you... You've never been like that... Everything you've ever cared about were and are the rules..."

"Hush your mouth, Malik!", Malik's father shouted and another crack of a whip sounded.

I winced again as I heard Malik screaming in pain. I had to go in there. Quickly.

I took a run-up and jumped against the door, because the only way I could get in there was to break down that damned door. Malik's father beat Malik. I had to get him out of there.

"Father!", I heard Malik begging. "Please!"

As another lash sounded, I felt how tears filled up in my eyes. Tears of anger, hatred, pain...

//Malik, hang in there!//, I thought. //I'll rescue you!//

I wiped away my tears and jumped again against the door.

"Fa-a-ther", Malik cried. "Do you... Do you really think I deserve this?"

"Malik", was the only thing his father said.

"Father, can't you even listen to me? I want to explain..."

A moment of silence followed. I stopped jumping against the door and listened, my ear pressed against the door. Obviously, Malik's father gave him the chance to say something.

"Father...", Malik began. "Can't you just try to understand? Why do you punish me for something like this? Because I'm gay? You have no right to punish me for that! You know... love doesn't listen to reason. And I will never change my mind, my feelings about Bakura!"

"Some time you will change your mind! And I will help you with that!", Malik's father shouted and another crack of the whip sounded. "And don't talk about love between you and this fag! Because this isn't how it is meant to be! Two men can't love each other! Why do you think that the Gods have created women? Do you disagree with what the Gods have done?"

"Maybe...", Malik answered.

_Lash_

I clenched my fist and continued to break the door down while Malik's father shouted.

"You will change your mind, Malik! If you are so stubborn, you deserve this punishment! Think about everything that you've done the past days! You didn't come back home at the time I told you to be at home!"

_Lash_

"You didn't stay at home after you've finally come back although I'd said that you were grounded until I would come home to give you your punishment!"

_Lash_

"And then you didn't come home neither last night nor this morning!"

_Lash_

_Bang! _

Finally, I'd managed to break the door down and went into the room. My eyes widened at the sight that met my eye. It was... terrible.

Malik's father stood in the middle of the chamber, a whip in his hand. And Malik... He was tied to the wall with his hands and his feet so that he formed an 'X'. His back was turned towards me and his father and it was wounded. Malik's shirt was torn. Blood trickled out of the wounds the lashes had made and down his back.

"Malik!", I gasped. Both Malik and his father now turned their faces towards me.

"Bakura!", Malik said weakly, but relief was audible in his voice.

"How did you get into my house? Get the hell out of here!", Malik's father screamed.

"Never!", I yelled. "Malik, I'll rescue you!" I ran towards him. Malik's father wanted to cut me with the whip he held, but I noticed it and could duck down just in time. Quickly, I ran over to Malik, pulled out my pocket-knife and began to cut the rope around his left hand.

"Stop it!", Malik's father yelled and came to where I and Malik where. "This is none of your business! Don't touch my son!"

I scoffed. "First of all, Malik is my business!", I countered. Malik's hands were already freed. "And secondly, you've said that he isn't your son! So..."

Malik's father growled and grabbed me at my shoulders.

"Listen, or I-"

"You what?", I interrupted and tore myself away from him. "You can be glad if I won't call the police!"

He grabbed me again, but I'd had enough of him and struck him in his face. He tumbled backwards. Malik gasped as his father fell to the floor clutching his nose.

"I'm sorry, Malik. But he didn't give me a choice", I muttered and cut through the rope around his left foot.

"It's okay", Malik answered in a weak and tired voice.

Quickly, I freed Malik's other foot and carried him out of this torture chamber, leaving his father in there.

"Malik, does your back hurt badly?", I asked him while I carried him up the stairs as fast as I could. Malik shrugged lightly.

"I... I don't know. I guess, yes", he mumbled and closed his eyes.

At the top of the stairs, Odion stood. He nodded as I looked at him.

"Best of luck", he said to me. I smiled. I would never forget that it was him who let me in.

"Goodbye", I whispered before I went out of the house with Malik, along the garden path and through the garden gate with Malik in my arms.

I carried him to my apartment, where I laid him down on my bed. I searched in the bathroom for some bandages and wrapped them around his back.

After about half an hour, he opened his eyes.

"Bakura", he whispered.

"Sh! It's okay, Malik...", I told him.

"I... I..."

I knew what he wanted to say.

"Malik, you don't have to go back there", I said. "You stay with me, okay?"

He nodded and sat up, but apparently that hurt, because his face was contorted with pain.

"Stay", I told him and he lay back down.

"Bakura?", he asked.

"Yes?"

"Thanks for rescuing me... I don't know how much longer I could have..."

"Well, it's alright now", I said. "And... I think you should know that your brother has helped."

"Odion?", Malik questioned disbelievingly.

"Yes. He was the one who had let me in and who had told me to rescue you, Malik. He had said that I should rescue you and hide you somewhere. He had also said I shouldn't tell anybody, but I think you are allowed to know it", I said. "He wished us 'best of luck', what means that he agreed with you and me being lovers. I think he will deal with your father at home and tell him that you won't come back."

Malik nodded and smiled.

"I knew at least he would understand", Malik whispered. I leaned forward and kissed him.

"Yes", I said as we broke apart.

Malik pushed my head down, so that our lips met again.

"You know what that means, do you?", he asked.

"That we can be together forever?", I said.

"Yes, but that's not the only thing I meant", he said and pulled me into the bed. "We can also do whatever we want now."

Getting the hint, I grinned. "Now?"

"We better wait until my back is okay again", Malik said.

I nodded. "Okay, I can live with that."

"Of course", Malik said. "Because you have to live with that."

He laid his head on my chest and minutes later, he was asleep...

**TEN YEARS LATER...**

"Hey, Ry! Do you wanna go for a walk?", I asked the little white-haired boy.

"Yeah!", he answered happily and jumped down from the couch. "Walk! Walk! Walk!"

I smiled. "Then go and wake daddy", I told him. He nodded and ran into the bedroom. I followed him.

"Daddy! Wake up! We wanna go for a walk!", he said and shook Malik gently at his shoulder.

Malik groaned. "What? Lemme sleep, Ry...", he said and pulled the blanket over his head.

Both Ryou and I giggled.

"Come on, Malik", I said and sat down on the bed. "I have to show you something."

Malik groaned again. "Okay, okay", he said and stood up. "I'll be ready in a moment."

A little later, we walked, Ryou in the middle.

"So... What do you wanna show me?", Malik asked.

"You'll see", I answered.

After a while, Malik recognized where I headed.

"Bakura... I thought we agreed to never go into this street", he said and stopped.

"I know... But I think you should see something...", I told him and we continued to walk.

Malik sighed.

We went straight on, until the certain house came into view where neither of us ever wanted to go inside again. Several trucks stood in front of the garden fence.

"They... They're moving?", Malik asked.

I nodded. We stopped as we stood at the opposite side of the house. Some of the trucks drove already off.

As we saw three people walking out of the house, Malik clenched his fist.

Malik's father ignored us as he climbed into a car, though I was sure that he had seen us. Ishizu darted a look at us and smiled, before she, too, climbed into the car. Then, the car drove off. Odion talked to the driver of the last truck. After the truck had driven off, he noticed us. I smiled. I took Ryou into my arms and crossed the road. Malik followed us.

Odion began to smile as he saw us approaching.

"Odion", I said.

Odion nodded. "Bakura, Malik. And who is this?", he asked and rumpled Ryou's hair.

"This is our little Ryou", I told him.

"Hey, Ryou", Odion said.

Ryou buried his face shyly in my hair.

I sighed.

"Odion... I... I wanted to thank you. I hadn't got the chance the last time I've seen you and that is already ten years ago, and if I wouldn't do it now, I could never. So, thank you for everything..."

Odion nodded. "You're welcome." He then looked at his car. "Well... I think I have to go now. We're going back to Egypt. Probably, we won't see us again."

I nodded. "Goodbye, Odion."

Odion turned and walked to his car.

"Wait!", Malik suddenly shouted and ran to his brother.

"Malik?", Odion said.

Malik embraced his brother. "Please, don't forget us, okay?", he said.

Odion nodded. "I won't, I promise." Then, Odion climbed into his car and drove off. I walked to Malik with Ryou on my arms.

"And?", I asked Malik.

He sighed. "Thanks for bringing me here. I think I would have never forgiven myself if they would have just vanished and I would have never gotten the chance to talk to them, well, to Odion at least."

"I knew that", I told him. He smiled.

"Let's get home", I said.

Malik nodded. "Yeah. Come on Ryou, come to daddy. You've been long enough with your dad."

I gave Ryou to him and we walked back home.

I was happy. Now, everything was fine.

Well, Malik's father hadn't forgiven us and we hadn't forgiven him, but at least Malik's siblings were happy for us. I was glad that I'd had the chance to thank Odion, because he had helped us all those years ago...

Now, what should we want more?

We were happily married, lived in a nice small house and had a little son. He was adopted, sure, but it felt like he was our own flesh and blood. His hair was white like my hair and his eyes were lavender like Malik's. We'd called him Ryou in the memory of Ryou, my first boyfriend, my first love, so that we would never forget him.

I'm not going to say that I'm happy because he died, because I'm not, but if he wouldn't have died, this story would never have ended like this. Well, actually if he hadn't died, this story would never have happened.

I laid my arm around Malik's shoulder. //Let's see what else life has planned for us//, I thought.

**The end.**

**So, that was it. That's the end of the story.  
****Boo-hoo... I'm so sad that it's over, because I really liked it. I hope you liked reading the story as much as I liked writing it. **

**Well, I don't have much to say now. Just one thing:**

**PLEASE SEND ME SOME REVIEWS!!! **

**Tell me what you think about the story. Did you like it? Do you like the end? Please, please tell me, okay? All of you!**

**Oh, and thanks to the ones who always (or almost always) reviewed. You really made me happy. And thanks to the ones who reviewed at least a few times or once. You made me happy, too.  
****And you would make me really really happy, if you all would review this time, okay?  
****That would be really nice. **

**And please take a look at my profile, because I've made a poll because I'm not sure which story I should start next. I'd be really happy if many people would vote.**

**So, hope to see you again in another story. You were great!**

**(Okay, that was actually more than I'd planned to say, but okay.)**

**^-^**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


End file.
